The Same As Us
by Vampire-Michy-Chan
Summary: GaaraXOC/you Once a Leaf shinobi, you now have to live with your Aunt Natsuko in Suna. Your brother naruto told you about a friend of his who lives there. He's the same as the two of you... T rated -Don't judge by rubbish summary!-
1. Leaving home

**Hey there thanks for taking the time to actually read this. The last time I tried to write a story I completely failed. I was taking too long doing just about everything. This one should be better, I'm going to start from scratch with a whole new idea.**

**Hope you enjoy.  
Hints tips and review please!!!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters, in fact… I don't really own much at all -_-**

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You stared out of your bedroom window one last time. So this was it... No more konoha. You brushed your red bangs away from your ocean blue eyes, sighing.

"Don't worry Cami-chan, I'm sure you'll come back some day." You're blond haired brother said reassuringly.

"Heh, it's almost as if you can read my mind, Naruto-kun" You muttered, turning around to face him.

"Well, what do you expect? I mean, come on! How long have we known each other for? How long have we lived together?"

"6 years"

"Exactly!"

"Whatever, you know me well- it still doesn't explain how you can get inside my head."

He grinned at you. "It's `cause secretly we are actually twins from a long lost clan with mind reading powers!"

"REALLY??" You asked before even truly thinking about it

Naruto laughed, "You're so gullable!"

You laughed too, "yeah I know, sometimes I just can't help it- I mean, I didn't actually really thing that it was true... I just trust you waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much"

You both laughed for a bit more, before going quiet.

"You know... it's gonna be completely different with you living in Suna" Naruto mumbled.

"Get out of my head!" you said joking, "I was thinking that!"

He gave you his usual huge grin. "Heh, sorry can't help it.... Hey, who'd you say you were going to live with again?"

"Oh, some auntie Natsuko or something... Uzumaki Natsuko?" you shrugged

"hm..." Nauto thought for a moment. "Nope, never heard of her, or any of our other relatives come to think of it."

"Yeah, not even our own parents" you muttered.

It was true, no matter how much you asked, no one would tall you who your parents were; they only ever said that they were great people and great ninjas and died protecting their village and their kids. There was an awkward silence before Naruto decided to say something.

"Well, who needs them anyways? I'm sure that they were nice people and all, but we've done just fine without them!"

"Yeah, just fine. Not as if we have any outstanding bills to pay, or have to keep boring money and ninja tools from Iruka sensei or anything like that" you said sarcastically, rolling your eyes at the overconfident fool of a twin brother you had.

"Hey, is that sarcasm I hear?" Naruto shouted at you making you laugh.

"come on, help me pack my bags."

"yeah, yeah. But afterwards we're so going out to get some ramen."

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_*** first dream***_

_You're bags were already in the room and you're roommate in front of you._

_He was not pleased._

"_But Iruka sensei, why do _I _have to share _my_ apartment with a _girl_?" he whined, sitting down on the floor cross-legged and pouting._

_You hid behind the tall man named "Iruka sensei" a bit more, feeling very shy and very embarrassed._

"_She has to go somewhere, and this is the only place she can go. Be nice to her, ok? She's the same as you."_

"_What's _that_ supposed to mean?" The young blond boy asked._

"_I mean, she's been treated very much in the same way as you back in her home village. That she too doesn't have any parent s or any other relatives that we know of yet." The tall person said, folding his arms, "just make her feel welcome and treat her how you would want to be treated."_

_And with that he left in a puff of smoke._

"_hmmp." The boy pouted once more, "well, tell us your name then."_

"_Uzumaki Camika." You mumbled shyly._

_The boy looked at you with wide eyes that grew from a sort of shock to excitement._

"_No way!" He shouted happily standing up suddenly. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto! Hey, do you think we're related?"_

"_Well, I heard some of the adults saying something about..." you drifted off, not finishing your sentence._

"_Tell me, tell me!" he jumped up and down in excitement._

"_N-NO! I didn't hear!"_

"_Awwwww, come on. I know you eaves dropped, don't lie to me" He grinned at you "Come one, spill the goods"_

"_W-well... The hokage mentioned, errr, something about us being twins and separated for a reason..."_

"_And, and? Anything else?" he asked._

_You shock your head. "no, then i got caught."_

"_Awwww man!" He wailed, "Never mind... So we're twins then huh?"_

_He gave you this huge grin. It warmed your heart, making you feel welcomed for once._

"_Yup," you chirped happily, "and I've heard some of the people from my old village saying that I look a lot like my- I mean our mum, so I'm guessing that you look a lot like our dad."_

"_Ha! Cool!"_

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You woke up early that next morning after having that dream. It was a flash back from when you first moved to konoha when you were about 8 years old. You were now 14, a lot less shy and quite a bit more talented. You had left the academy at 10 years old as you were a very capable student. A while after you then became a chunin (which made Naruto even more jealous then what he already was). You and Naruto had always planned that when he became Hokage you'd be his personal assistant; helping him on all his super cool missions as the best ANBU member in konoha.

But by the looks of things, that wasn't going to happen. A few weeks ago you had got a letter from your aunt requesting one of you to live with her in Suna. As it was Naruto's dream to become the Hokage- not the kazekage- and Naruto was going into training with his pervy sensei Jiraiya (which would have to be cancelled if he had to go live in Suna) you decided that it would have to be you who went to live with her.

And you were leaving today.

You managed to roll yourself out of bed and got into the shower. After that you got dressed into your usual ninja gear; a light yellow tank top that had a picture of some strawberries on it over a fishnet vest with orange shorts. Your long open-toe, boot-like ninja shoes were a dark brown/ almost blackish sort of colour. You tied half of your short, dark red-maroon hair up, letting you bangs and side fringe fall loose over most of your forehead and left eye.

With a sigh, you grabbed your bags and made your way to the door without having breakfast.

"Hey Cami-chan, you're finally up!" greeted Naruto as you sluggishly made your way to the front door, "you not eating before you leave?"

"Naaaah, feeling homesick already" you said, giving him a smile.

"You sure, it's your favourite"

You looked at what was on his plate.

Pop tarts! With chocolate paste spread all over them.

"Weeeeeelllll, maybe just one slice. It's never good to start the day on an empty stomach!" you grinned cheerfully. Naruto grinned back.

"So what time you leaving?" Naruto asked as you sat down next to him in front of the T.V.

"Dunno, some sand ninja are gonna be picking me up from the gate. My new teammates I think..." you replied, munching down on a pop tart. The melted chocolate gave you a happy feeling inside.

It's true; chocolate really is an anti-depressant (unless of cause weight gain is the reason your depressed).

"Cool, I hope they're nice"

"Yeah, me too."

You both walked out of the house and to the gate where a bunch of your mates where standing around, waiting for you so that they could say their last good-byes.

"We're gonna miss you!" Tenten squeeled, hugging you tightly.

"Yeah, remember your promise!" Ino said joining in.

"yeah, I will. As if I'd forget to write" You said grinning the same cheesy grin you and Naruto shared.

"Good luck." Kiba said, and akamaru barked in agreement.

"This is so troublesome... I had to wake up early to be able to say goodbye before you left." Shikamaru complained yawning, "well, hope Suna isn't a drag for you"

"Heh, I get the feeling it won't be" Lee announced "keep up the training, Cami-chan"

"Yeah, and tell me if there's any good steak houses there, `cause if so, I'm there!" Choji chipped in, munching on his chrisps, actually offering you one for once- which of `cause you took.

"Thanks for everything, Cami-chan." Hinata almost whipered. "you're such a great friend"

"heh, thanks Hina-chan. And don't worry you guys I'll be back sometime"

"You sure?" Sakura asked "I mean... well, Suna is so far away and all..."

"I said don't worry! It'll work out somehow"

"I take it you're Uzumaki Camika?" a voice from behind you spoke.

"Yup, that's me." You said turning round to see who it was.

A sand ninja, a jonin (obviously because of his clothes and he was the oldest one of the team by far without actually being considered "old"). He had brown eyes and one of those weird desert hats on his head that covered his hair. Next to him where two other male ninja, who were roughly about your age. One had light brown hair which was quite long for a guy (around your hair's length) and he had greeny-yellow, friendly looking eyes. He was dressed in black ¾ length trousers and had a sand coloured t-shirt on. The other had short dirty blond hair (sort of tan colour?) and chocolate coloured eyes with a long sleeved white top that had a light blue top over it with shorts that reached his knees that were the same colour as his hair.

"We're going to be your escorts to and around Suna. We're also your new team; I'm your sensei, Sakuma," The jonin introduced himself, "and these are your teammates Takara Yuki and Suzume Sora." He finished gesturing first to the darked hair boy who gave a small wave and then to the lighter haired buy who smiled politely.

"Wow Cami-chan, you're so lucky you've got two hot teammates" Ino whispered to you.

You giggled.

"It's nice to meet you all! I hope we can get along well," you replied politely, "you already know who I am, so I guess I won't be needing to introduce myself."

"Alright, let's get going so we can get back to Suna for breakfast tomorrow." Sakuma-sensei said.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIT!!"" Naruto shouted, running up to the large group, "I've got something for you before you leave."

Naruto took out a bag and handed you a chain necklace that had on it a small Uzumaki swirl charm attached to it.

"We all chipped in to buy it for you; a little soothing-someting for you to remember us all by" Naruto puffed; out of breath from running.

"Awwww, thanks you guys. I'd never forget you- but it's a sweet idea. Thanks again!" you put it on straight away.

"Ah, yeah. And one more thing," Naruto said, leaning forward to whisper in your ear, "if you see this red-haired guy with no eyebrows and a serious case of insomnia; be friends with him and tell him I said Hi"

Naruto stepped back. "He's the same as us." He said calmly.

You understood what he ment.

The sand too had a jijuriki, just like the two of you.

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**Ok, that's the first chapter done! Thanks for reading. Tell me what you think of it so far. =D**

**Michy-chan  
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	2. Getting there

**Hope your enjoying this. Thanks a load for reading.**

**Comment, review, ect. please~~!!!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, that much is obvious.**

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You had almost reached the desert now and the homesickness was really starting to become overwhelming. To distract yourself at first, you ran quickly, but you were just draining yourself of energy which was pointless, so you began to talk to your new teammates, getting to know them.

The blond haired boy, Sora-kun, was a total flirt. A "lady's man" as people call them. You made it quite clear that you were _not _ interested. This seemed to amuse your other teammate, the darker hair Yuki-kun, very much. Unfortunately Sora had noticed and they had started to bicker.

Quickly moving away you caught up with your sensei.

"Um, Sakuma-sensei? Are they always like that?" you asked slightly nervous.

Your friendly sensei smiled at you. "Normally only around pretty girls or when there's some sort of completion for anything."

"Ah!" you blushed, "I-I'm not that pretty..."

"Nonsense! Of course you are Cami-chan! I hope you don't mind me calling you that." Your flirty teammate called from behind you.

"And for once, no brain here has a point." Yuki joined in sarcastically.

"What was that, teme!?"

You laughed, a nostalgic feeling sweeping over you.

"My brother used to fight like that with one of his teammates." You commented.

"Used to?" your sensei noted.

"Uh.... the other guy's..... well," you didn't know how to explain it, or even if you were supposed to be explaining it in the first place.

"it's alright, you don't have to explain it if you don't want to." Your sensei said solemly.

"I-it's not that he's dead or anything!" you explained "it's just.... it's hard to explain and I don't even know if I should- if I have the _right _to explain."

"Ok." Your sensei smiled. "I understand now"

"HEY SENSEI!" Sora called, "we're at the desert now, can we rest up a bit now?"

"No we can't, we've got to get at least half way before we can stop and besides; it's nowhere near night fall or anything, you can't be tired by now" Yuki replied.

"He's got a point, how can you be tired already?" Your sensei joined in, "we'll rest when we get to that cave again."

"Here," you tossed Sora some soldier pills, "use them if you want, I never do."

"Cheers!" He said catching them, and putting one in his mouth straight away. "I owe you one."

"It's alright, I told you I don't use them anyways" you said grinning at him.

The sun had set now and the evening was getting cooler, but in the middle of the desert it was still very hot. You continued travelling; keeping an eye out for this cave that your teammates spoke of earlier.

"So, what's Suna like?" you asked them, trying to break the silence.

"Hot."

"Dusty."

"Not a lot of plants."

"Very hot."

"A bit boring."

"Clear sky's most of the year..."

"Did I mention that it was hot?"

You laughed, "Figured as much"

"Ah, we're here!" Sakuma sensei announced.

"We're where?" you asked bluntly. There was nothing in site. No cave, no hill, nothing. Not even a small rock (unless of course you're counting sand; there was lots of that).

"Heh, watch and learn Cami-chan," Yuki said calmly, "Watch and learn."

Your sensei made a few hand signs and a bit of the landscape in front of you became hazy. When it came back into focus you could now see what was really there. A smallish looking cave that went underground slightly. It had been covered up by an illusion.

"Oooooooooooh," you murmured. "Now I get it."

"Pretty cool, huh?" Yuki said.

"Hmmp, it's alright." You said teasingly.

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You got up the next moring feeling really tired and sore... Why was that? Because sleeping on the ground in a cave somewhere in the so-called "Great Outdoors" is painfull! Especially when you didn't pack your sleeping bag and especially, especially when one of your teammates talks constantly in their sleep!

Oddly enough, Yuki talked loads in his sleep. And if that wasn't enough he tossed and turned and swung his arms about randomly hitting anything near him in his sleep as well!

You got about 2 hours sleep that night (which isn't good for you as you're a very lazy person and love to sleep loads). You tried your best not to show it, and not to take out your grouchy tiredness on your new friends - even if a certain one of them was the cause of the problem. This was a lot harder then it sounded as Sora kept trying to start a conversation up with you and you kept trying to nod off half way through.

Then you heard something that caught your interest.

"and he really need to get some rest, I mean have you seen those dark circles round his eyes?" Sora yattered away.

"wait, who are you talking about?" you asked curiously. This could be the guy Naruto was talking about.

"Ah, just some guy in our village you really don't want to get involved with. Gaara. Red haired, icy-blue/mint green eyes, love tattoo on his forehead, real bad insomnia. He's a total creep and I've heard that he's killed loads of people before." Sora chattered away.

"Well, we _are_ ninjas. It's sort of our job-"

"yeah but this guy actually kills for fun! What kind of person does that?" Sora asked.

"A monster, that's who." Yuki said and Sora laughed.

You stopped where you were, looking down at your feet, remembering all of the time you'd had people call you a monster and laugh at you like that.

"hey, Cami-chan. Are you ok? We didn't scare you did we." Yuki asked.

"Do you even know him?" You asked, rage filling you, almost spilling out into your voice. "have you ever tried to speak with him? Has anyone?"

"W-well, no-"

"Then you don't know if he's really like that. You don't know if he wasn't just forced to be like that because that's what everybody called him and everybody treated him like."

You walked straight past your teammates who just stood there and watched you in shock.

"Loneliness is a horrible thing, and it can do incredible damage to some people. So don't judge him on some rumours you've heard" you continued, pausing for a moment. "What was his name again?"

"Gaara... Gaara of the desert"

"Gaara huh...." you pondered for a moment, "I'll show you guys. He's not actually a monster."

You turned and faced them. Their jaws were wide open in shock, even your sensei looked scared. You stuck your tong out at them.

"I know he isn't a monster," you said grinning, "and I'll prove it."

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**And that's the second chapter done! Hope you enjoyed.**

**Review please =] Thanks!**

**Next chapter time skips forward about a week so you're all settled in with your aunt and all that.**

**Michy-chan**


	3. A dream and a wish

**Third chapter in two days. Wow... I'm on a roll =P**

**It's probably `cause of the Easter Hols. And I've got no one to talk to and nothing to do as my boyfriends in turkey and my mates are busy (plus I don't know the way to their houses so I'd just get lost if I tried walking there.) **

**Any who... on with the story, this one's quite long... I think. It took me all day to write this.**

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_***Dreaming***_

"_Hey, it's weirdo and weirder" a boy called from quite a distance._

"_Hey, what you doing weirdo, hanging with your girlfriend?" his mate joined in._

"_Idiot, the Sanbi is weirder. It's his girlfriend that's weirdo." The first kid jeered, "Oi, weirder you kissed her yet?"_

"_Get away from me! And she's not my girlfriend, she's just my friend" Haruki yelled back at them, walking away._

"_Don't listen to them", you said comforting your closest friend-your only friend. "they're just trying to wind us up."_

_Something then hit you at the back of your head. You turned around to see some of the mist village boys throwing small rocks and pebbles at you. Your anger fumed inside of you but you contained it and just walked away, Haruki following close behind._

"_I don't know how you do it," he sighed when you had gotten far enough away._

"_Do what?"_

"_Just walk away so calmly like that. You always seem to be able to keep a level head" the 8 year old boy stated, "even when they call you red-head or ginger; which I know you hate."_

_You flinched when he mentioned the names you were occasionally called. _

"_Yeah well, it's a lot harder than it looks, trust me. I want to thump those idiots just as much as you do. They can just go die." You said crossing your arms and pouting._

"_Camika-chan, that's not a very nice thing to say." An adult voice sighed._

_You looked up to see your beloved guardian Yoriwa leaning against the wall of a building._

"_Yoriwa-san!" you greeted him cheerfully, running towards him to get your hug._

"_Camika-chan, it's not nice to say those things about people, even if they have hurt your feelings real bad. You should honestly be more careful with what you wish for." A small, spooky looking smile darted across your Yoriwa-san's face momentarily, but you ignored it. It was probably just your imagination._

"_Sorry Yoriwa-san! I promise not to do it again." You chirped sweetly, running up to him and giving him a hug._

"_That's a good girl, now what about some ice-cream?" Yoriwa suggested, which earnt a cheer from you, "oh, and Haruki-san; I believe the Mizukage wants to speak with you, probably about some mission."_

"_Oh...." Haruki mumbled disappointed, "Ok, I'll go now then."_

"_Maybe next time Haru-kun can come with us." You said, smiling sympathetically at him._

"_Nah, it's ok. I don't really like ice-cream anyways" he lied, but before you could say anything he was already running off to the kage's office._

_..._

_At the ice-cream hut you and Yoriwa-san chatted and ate ice-cream and before long the subject changed to Haruki._

"_You know, you really shouldn't hang out with that guy, he's dangerous ya know." You father-figure began._

"_No he's not," you replied haughtily. "I hang out with him all the time. He's perfectly safe when I'm with him. The boys from our village have even gathered the courage to start picking on him again, unfortunately..."_

"_Camika-chan..." he said seriously, "I mean it. He's a killer- a monster- and you shouldn't lower yourself to his level."_

"_No, the level I shouldn't lower myself to is those other guy's level!" you insisted, "They're the real monsters- them bullies. And I don't see why everyone lets them get away with picking on other people. It's not just me and Haru-kun they're mean to. It's anyone and everyone who is in the slightest bit original, unique or different to them and their idealist."_

"_They're picking on you too?!" Oopps... shouldn't have mentioned that. "Camika, that's just one more reason why you shouldn't go anywhere near him!" your guardian persevered._

_..._

"_Monster!"_

"_Freak!"_

"_Weirdo!"_

_They were chucking stones again, but this time it was worse. The adults were watching and doing nothing about it and there were also some teenagers that were joining in too. Tears spilled across your face as the rage inside of you seeped out._

"_Stop it! Just stop it!" you shouted, running in-between them and Haruki._

"_Eeeeew, look it's ginger bread. Sticking up for your boyfriend are we?" The continued to jeer and chuck stones at you now as well._

_Fiery anger boiled inside of you like lava, ready to erupt. And it did._

_Bright red chakra steamed out of you uncontrollably, and your eyes changed to a pupil-less red. The anger and hurt cried out from within you and let your own inner demon take control._

"_**Art of the demon tamer; seal release!"**_

_The red chakra formed a whip and lashed out at Haruki who was standing there in total shock._

_As the whip cracked he cried out, and all went silent momentarily._

_Suddenly, Haruki fell unconscious and the sanbis chakra consumed him. A slightly miniature pure demon chakra version of the real demon formed around Haruki's unconscious body which then- at a second crack of the blood red whip- sprung into action, harming everything and anything close by._

_The villagers began to scream and run as the release monster tore up everything near it- except you._

_After a moment or two, you regained control of your own body and the blood red chakra was gone. Nothing but the deep red whip remained. Seeing what chaos you had created you began to panic._

"_HARUKI, NO!" you yelled at the beast you released as it shredded whatever was closest. That being one of the village boys, one of the ones you had wished dead before._

"_NO!" you screamed as the boys blood hit the floor, but it continued to ignore you and carry on its business. "SANBI I COMMAND YOU TO STOP!"_

_You had no clue why you had shouted that last part, or what made your arm jerk and make the whip in your hand crack one final time, but it seemed to work. The demon stopped and it's chakra withdrew, leaving behind the boy whose body it had taken over. Haruki stood there holding his head in pain._

"_Haruki-kun, are you alright?" you asked, running towards him to help him. _

"_No, I'm not alright." He whispered. "how'd you...? Why'd you make me do that?"_

"_I-I don't know, I'm sorry Haruki-kun I really didn't mean t-" you reached out to touch him, to comfort him but he swiped your hand away._

"_Get away from me!" he yelled._

_You flinched back, frightened at the way in which your best friend shouted at you angrily. You heart ached for his forgiveness._

"_I'm sorry."_

_The scene changes and your back at your house with your guardian Yoriwa._

"_Sorry doesn't quite cut it!" he shouted, smacking you. "it's all your fault and nothing is going to change what happened those few weeks ago. It's your fault that the demon got lose then, it's your fault that Haruki ran away and it's your fault that, that demon child is out in the wild somewhere causing living hell!"_

_You stood there as he shouted and yelled, complaining about how the village was falling to pieces and that with the tailed beast lost the village would be seen as weak and soon enough some other village would come to try seize power over the mist. He slapped you again and again, beating you to a pulp leaving you in the living room corner._

_You curled up into a ball and cried. Life was falling to bits. It just wasn't worth living anymore. You wished that you could escape from this place, get out of here- you'd go anywhere, as long as it was just far away from here. Somewhere where you could just start all over again!_

_Yoriwa returned. This time holding a knife with an evil, demonic look on his face._

"_I can't believe you were ever Kushina's child. A pitty that I have to kill ou, you both look so a like." _

_He raised the dagger above his head and was about to plunge it down, when you scrambled out of the way. You ran through the house, trying to escape._

"_There's no use in running. I'm gonna get you!"_

_You scrambled with the front door. No use, it was locked. You quickly ran upstairs._

"_Come back here ya little brat!"_

_You ran to you bedroom, shutting the door behind you and putting a chair against its soon after doing so the handle began to rattle._

"_Open this door right now" He screamed, " I'll make it quick and painless!"_

_You opened the window, and looked down. It was a long way to jump, would you make it? The door continued to rattle, he had almost broken through. You were about to climb up onto the window-sill when the door smashed in and Yoriwa charged in. He grabbed you ankle and dragged you away from your one chance of freedom and escape._

"_Now ya little runt." He panted, "I'm gonna have to make it slow and painful. This is going to be a lot of fun."_

_He lifted his knife once more and you closed your eyes. You didn't want to look, to see the hatred in his eyes., to see the hatred in his eyes. You still loved him- but he hated you. He had always hated you; you had always been a liability for him. A burden. A disgrace._

"_You can look now." A female voice spoke. You opened you eyes and looked up to see a purple haired ANBU member standing over you. Two other ANBU members were holding an unconscious Yoriwa. You heart hurt yet again._

"_By the Mizukage and the Hokage's orders you're to come with us at once." She said politly, "your being moved to Konoha to live there for now. Think of i as a fresh start. Would you like that?"_

_You nodded enthusiastically, not believing that your wish had come true. You remembered Yoriwa's words "be careful what you wish for..."_

_You were pretty certain that whatever was waiting for you in Konoha couldn't be any worse than this._

_

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You woke up from your dream feeling tired and groggy. As usual it took a few minutes for you to run things over in your head and figure out in whose room you were in. It was your room. Your new room at your aunts house in Suna. You'd been here almost a week now and had just about completely settled in. There were just two more things you needed to do.

Find this Gaara person; pass on the message from your brother and make friends with him yourself.

And

Finally get used to waking up in this different room already! It was sort of getting on your nerves; the whole "where am I again?" routine every morning.

"Camika-san, breakfast~!"

And that was your jolly aunt calling. She had red hair like yours only longer and tied back into a bun and her eyes were the same as yours too. Apparently; you had her eyes, your mum's were different slightly. Your aunt usually dressed in an apron and was a sort of motherly, kind, caring, optimistic, "Jolly stereo-type aunt" sort of person.

And that was her in a nutshell.

You made your way out of your room and down stairs to the kitchen table where your aunt dished up eggs, sausages and bacon with a slice of toast. You had no idea that you even liked the stuff before you arrived here in Suna.

"So, are you going out again to try find 'that boy'" your aunt asked conversationally.

You had to tell her what you were trying to do, but found it best not to actually tell her who it was, as it appeared that Gaara really did have a nasty reputation in this village and you didn't want to get on your aunt's 'bad side' (if it existed) or to make her worry too much about you.

"Yup, hopefully I'll find him today, but I honestly don't know how I'm going to find him" you sighed.

"Well, don't give up, I'm sure you'll find him eventually." She said reassuringly. "just don't forget to be home in time for dinner."

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**There, done for now. That was one hell of a long flash back- and yes, it was a flash back you may have figured that already.**

**Review please if you haven't already or want to again! Thanks for the reviews, ect you've given me already!! =D**

**Michy-chan**


	4. A New Friend

**The Forth Chapter!**

**I'm actually doing quite a bit better now then last time I made one of these fanfic stories... I'm really glad I started again ^-^**

**In this chapter I think you finally get to meet Gaara (I'm not sure, I'm just making this story up as I go along; it's quicker this way). Last time I wrote it all down on paper first, before typing it up onto word, before downloading it onto Fanfic. =S It was long, REALLY long I'm not joking!**

**Oh! And one last thing; I sort of based Sora some other manga/anime characters. (I know, rubbish imagination TT_TT )**

**Sora is based on a cross between Sora and Roxas from Kingdom Hearts... I didn't mean to, he just sort of turned out that way.**

**Also, when I was first thinking of Yuki; I thought of him as having dark brown hair, but looking back now I typed in light brown hair. Whoops =S Never mind, whats done is done. **

**Disclaimer; same as last time, I don't know why people even have to bother.**

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You stepped outside into the hot and dusty town, closing the front door behind you. They weren't kidding when they said hot and dusty. The town was as busy as always; you lived close to the market place too, which is why where you lived was usually crowded. In the market the streets were packed full of people of all ages; buying, selling and browsing for items**. **Today Aunt Natsuko had asked you to do the shopping, which you happily accepted as there really wasn't anything else for you to do.

Finding this Gaara person- without asking anyone for help- was going to be a difficult task. Your brother had tried to help by sending you a picture of what he looked like.

It was a crappy drawing. Naruto was never one for art. You, on the other hand were much better- many people had told you that you should have been an artist and not a ninja; but you preferred to be a ninja. Not half as many people would criticize your work then.

It turned midday and you had just about finished the shopping. You checked the item list that your aunt had given you.

"_Eggs... check. Milk... check. Tomatoes... check..." _

You bumped into someone and stumbled backwards, landing on your bum and dropping your bags.

"Ouch! Oh, sorry." you looked up to see who you had bumped into.

Standing there in front of you was a young, blond haired ninja who was probably a little bit older than you. She had green eyes and her hair was done up in four spiky bunches. You apologised and started to gather up the shopping you had dropped, thankfully the mild hadn't spilt or anything.

"Here, let me help you with that." She said and began helping you gather your stuff.

"Thanks!" you said bowing politely

"It was no problem. Don't worry about it," she replied, "my name's Temari, nice to meet you."

"Uzumaki Camika," you introduced yourself, holding out your hand to shake hers, "and it's nice to meet you too."

She stood there and stared at you shocked for one moment, before shaking your hand.

"Are you related to... what's his name again.... He lives in konoha..." she asked thinking hard.

"Naruto?" you suggested. How did this girl know your brother?

"Yeah, that's the one! I guess that's a yes then, huh?"

"Yeah, he's my twin."

"Twin? But you look nothing alike. Plus you weren't there at the Chunin exams... were you?"

"Naah, I wasn't there. I'd passed that before he was even out of the academy," you said grinning, "and I look more like our mum. He gets his looks from our dad... or at least we think so."

"Your smiles exactly the same as his"

"Yeah, we share the same cheesy grin." You said laughing. "So you know him from the chunin exams?"

As you chatted away you walked, although you had no clue where you were going. Apparently to your aunts house, because Temari had changed direction and was now walking the same way as you.

"Sort of, I guess. He met my brother there and...." she drifted off not finishing her sentence for a while, "he's been different since they met. A lot more.... nice, a lot more human."

Was she talking about Gaara? Or was her brother the one Naruto met and not this Gaara person and you had got it all wrong? Or maybe she was talking about someone completely different that Naruto had met once? Only one way to find out....

"Errr, I think I know who you're talking about I'm not sure... Naruto mentioned someone before I left Konoha, red hair?" you asked.

"Yup"

"no eyebrows?"

"Uh-huh"

"Bad case of insomnia?"

"_Very_ bad"

"Sounds like him, what's his name?"

"Gaara."

You didn't fail to notice that Temari said his name a lot quieter then how she said her other responses. You guessed that there was only one Gaara in town.

"Cool. Thank god for that, I thought I'd never find him. Lucky break for me then, huh?" you continued to explain what you meant, "Naruto has a message for him; nothing important just 'hi' but he asked me to give it to him myself. Plus I'd like to get to know him aswell, if that's alright Temari-san."

"That's.... fine I guess. I mean, he's not so nasty anymore so it should be safe.

"_It'd be safe for me, even if he was nasty. Providing that he actually is a jinjuriki of cause" _you thought to yourself, but didn't say anything out loud, you didn't want to freak her out.

"so, you got any other siblings?" you asked conversationally.

You two carried on talking and hung out together for the whole day (after you dropped the shopping off at home first). You and Temari get along really well and soon enough you were friends. You had organised to go round her house in two days time, because Gaara was off on a mission with their brother Kankuro and would be out of town for a while. Also apparently the house needed a serious clean out which would take a long time. You had volunteered to help, but Temari insisted that she did it herself.

So in two days time, you'd be finally meeting this Gaara person.

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"Wow Camika-chan, you're brave." Sora said after you'd told him and Yuki what you were doing.

It was the next day now, only one more day to go and you couldn't wait. Temari had promised not to tell them who you were or why you were coming round. This helped you a little bit; but you were still nervous. What if he didn't like you? What if he honestly didn't care- then you'd be really disappointed. You were currently sitting on a roof top looking down at the market place eating some ice-cream while waiting for your sensei to show up. Apparently Kakashi-sensei wasn't the only jonin who had a habit of being late to everything.

"I'm not that brave. To be honest I've got loads of butterflies in my stomach" you replied bashfully.

Sora gave you an odd look.

"She means metaphorically, dummy!" Yuki explained, hitting his teammate round the back of the head.

"OW! Hey, what's that mean??"

You laughed, "A metaphor is like a simile; it's basically compairing the feeling I've got right now to something similar..."

He still didn't get it.

"Ok, for example, the moon is a gigantic ball in the sky"

"But the moon isn't-"

"I know that; I'm just comparing it to a ball in the sky, that's all. That's what a metaphor is."

"Eeerrrr, I still don't get it."

Even you, with the patience from the gods with dimwits like Sora and Naruto didn't have the patience to try to continue to teach this kid.

"You know, for a guy who's as good looking as you are, you really don't have any brains do you?" You regretted saying this as soon as the last words slipped from your mouth. You saw Sora's eyes light up. Best put him down before he gets too many ideas.

"No, I don't mean it like that. I said it before, I'll say it again; I'm not really interested in you like that."

Yuki was laughing so hard he was almost in tears. Sora began to argue with him and soon enough they were having one of their little spats again. You sighed and turned away, looking around for something interesting to look at. And you found it.

A boy, with bright, blood red hair was standing in the market place outside one of the shops. The crowd around him were, well... not really around him. They sort of backed away a bit and gave him some space. He fascinated you, it was really weird. Sort of like the first time you saw Naruto. Like the first time you saw Haruki. He looked up and caught you staring at him, so you gave him a small smile. His eyes were amazing, round his eyes it looked like he was wearing eye-lined, or eye-shadow or something like that...

Then you saw Temari stepping out of the looked away from you as she spoke to him handed him a bag.

"_So does that make him.... Gaara?" _you thought.

Temari looked up- probably to see what he was staring at. She saw you and waved happily. You grinned and waved back at your friend. They began to walk off talking about something, probably you.

"Hey, I'm here!" Sakuma-sensei announced, appearing out of nowhere in a puff of smoke.

"ABOUT TIME!" Sora and Yuki shouted together in unison making you laugh.

"_well that was certainly interesting..."_

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**Next chapter: The Sand siblings home. Forgot to mention; I've drawn some of these Oc characters out for you; I'm gonna put them up on Deviantart sometime; I'll mention it at the beginning of a chapter when I've actually put them up on there, so you can have a look!! =D**

**Thanks again for reading!! **

**Michy-chan**


	5. The Sand Siblings Home

**Charpter 5: The Sand Siblings Home.**

**Wow... 5 chapters already xD I'm so proud ^-^ I'm probably not gonna be getting the story up as fast now coz I've got stuff to do but I'll still try my best~~!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. If I did the world would be a happier place... for me anyways =D**

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What a day! You had finished your mission with your team only just in time to get home and get some rest before tomorrow started. Thinking of going round Temari's house sent shivers down your spine, you really couldn't wait!

"Be sure to get some rest," your aunt Natsuko called as you dragged your tired body up the stairs and to your room.

"I will," you called back.

You got to your room and slumped onto your warm, soft and cosy bed relaxing. But not completely. You had had the strangest feeling all day that you were being watched. It had been haunting you ever since your team had finished one of your first little errands round the town and had been stalking you all day since. It was really starting to get on your nerves. No one would bother watching you carry out your boring everyday tasks, you really weren't that interesting at all to watch. But you could have sworn that someone was watching you- that someone had been watching you all day.

Something moved by the window, as you began to close your eyes and go into a deep sleep.

"_weird, I could have sworn I saw something at the window just now..." _you thought to yourself as you drifted off, "... wait, WHAT?!"

You sat you straight in your bed, but it was too late. You had shut your eyes and you had only to blink once before it was already morning.

"Damn it..." you cursed under your breath.

You were so certain that you had seen something come through the window.

Something or someone?

You looked around your room, making sure noting had been stolen. Nothing appeared to be missing. You checked your draws- all of them still locked just how you left them and when unlocked revealed that nothing had been moved or taken. You made sure that your Uzumaki-swirl charm necklace was still round your neck. You never took it off, in fear of losing it. When you looked in the mirror, it reminded you to write letters to all of your friends. It was still there.

You let out a sigh of relief. Nothing had been moved, touched or stolen, from what you could tell.

Maybe it was just your imagination?

Maybe.

You got dressed into your casual clothes. A yellow strawberry dress-top with your denim ¾ length trousers that were folded up so they came up to your knees. With this you wore your favourite trainers that were white with a light blue and yellow pattern on them. You let your hair loose today because there was no point in tying it back today. You put on a couple of yellow bangles and your Uzu-charm necklace before jogging down stairs to eat some breakfast!

"Morning Obasan!" you greeted your aunt cheerfully.

"Morning Cami-chan." You aunt replied smiling, "going round Temari's house today are we?"

"Yeah, just got to post these letter and then I'm heading over there. I'll be staying round for tea but I won't be out late, I promise,"

"Alright. It's nice to see your making friends already," your aunt said, putting your breakfast down in front of you, "Just be careful."

"Of what?" you asked curiously, before munching into your toast. Today you had honey on toast.

"Well, one of her brothers... You tend to hear a lot of nasty stuff about him."

"Rumours I'm sure." You replied with certainty.

"Well, if you're sure dear. I trust your sense of judgement. But be carefull,just in case. It's better safe than sorry."

"Ok, I will."

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"CAMI-CHAN!"

You turned to see Temari standing outside one of the market shops.

"Hey Tema-chan!" you called back, walking over to greet her.

"Whatcha doing out so early, I thought you weren't coming round till later?"

"I know. I'm not. I've just got to post some letters first."

"Oh, I see. Well, it's a good thing that we left early, I was hoping to catch you anyway. I forgot to tell you where our house is."

You paused for a second. All that time you were worrying about going round her house and meeting Gaara and you had completely forgotten that you didn't know where it was.

"I can't believe I'm that stupid." You muttered, face/handing yourself for your own stupidity.

(For those of you who don't know what face/hand or face/palm means; it's when you hit yourself on the forehead with the palm of your hand for being stupid. I do it all the time -_- )

"Doesn't matter; you're not the only one who totally forgot." Temari laughed, "Never mind, we'll go with you to the post office and go to our house together."

"Oh yeah, who's 'we'?" you asked curiously. She had said 'we' twice already, was she out shopping with someone?

"Hey Temari, who's your friend there?"

You turned to see a guy in this big black jump suit with purple face paint on standing with a bag of shopping. He had just come out of the shop and was walking towards the two of you.

"Ah, Kankuro- this is Camika-chan. Cami-chan, this is my brother Kankuro," Temari introduced the two of you.

"Right... nice to meet you." Kankuro said. It didn't sound like he meant it but at least he was making some sort of effort to be polite.

You smiled at him "yeah, you too."

"Kankuro, we're going to the post office so Cami-chan can drop off some letters. You can come too if you want" Temari told him

"Naah, I've gotta get the food home," Kankuro replied, "Don't want the ice-cream to melt now, do we."

"Sure, fine. Just don't eat any on the way home." Temari said as the two of you made your way down the road to the post office.

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Once there you handed in your letters and then headed off with Temari to her house. The area in which they lived was quite posh; there were lots of big houses, which kind of made you feel small, poor and uneasy. You carried on walking down the road until you reached a big house where Temari then took out her house keys.

"You live _here_?" you asked in amazement. The house was huge!

"Yeah, our dad was the 4th Kazekage. He died a little while ago," Temari said trying to unlock the door. It seemed that there something was stuck in the lock... or as if the door was locked from the inside, either way, the door wouldn't unlock.

"Ah, sorry to bring it up," you hadn't meant to hit a soft spot like that, if it was one.

"Nah, it's ok. Didn't know the old man that well anyways, he never really spent that much 'quality time' with us, you know" she sighed giving up on the door and knocking instead.

"Wouldn't really know. I never knew my mum or dad..." you said conversationally, "oh well. At least we still go siblings."

"Yeah... joy" Temari said sarcastically, making you laugh.

The door opened and there stood the red haired boy. When he saw you, you could have sworn he was about to shut the door again.

"Ah, thanks for opening the door Gaara, there's something wrong with the lock. We really need to get a professional to look at it," she said steeping in.

You followed behind her, smiling sweetly at Gaara as you walked past him. He looked shocked for a moment before answering Temari.

"I told you Kankuro couldn't do it," he murmered, "he specialises in puppets, not door locks."

"All the same to me, or at least very similar," Temari said, "So, Cami-chan... want a drink?"

"Sure." You replied, following Temari as she led the way to the kitchen.

The kitchen was kind big and quite fancy and modern looking. It was spacious and there was this gap in the wall so you could see through to the living room where Kakuro was sitting watching T.V and eating some ice-cream.

"Hey, you never told us your full name" Kankuro called from the sofa as Gaara joined him on the sofa (giving him a bit of space of cause).

"And you haven't told me yours either," you replied, "I'm Uzumaki Camika. You don't have to tell me your full names if you don't want to."

You saw Gaara tense up as you said your family name, and Kankuro pulled a "thinking face" as he tried to remember where he had heard that name from before. You laughed.

"You met my brother in konoha during the chunin exams. I was out of town doing on a mission when all that happened." You explained, "oh, by the way Gaara-kun. Naruto says 'hi'"

"_Mission 1 complete." _You thought to yourself.

Gaara turned and looked you in the eye. Feeling slightly embarrassed with him staring at you like that you gave him the Uzumaki smile.

"You look just like him when you do that," Gaara muttered, turning away again.

"Yeah, we get that a lot from our friends," you replied as Temari gave you a drink, "Cheers."

"No problem." Temari said, taking a sip from her own cup, "So how long have you been here in Suna for?"

"Not long, just moved in here to live with my aunt Natsuko-Obasan a little over a week ago"

You stayed round there chatting and getting to know Temari and Kankuro better. Gaara had went upstairs as soon as you and Temari sat yourselves down in the living room. You watched a film and played some games until about 8 o'clock.

"Ah, I think Obasan wanted me home by now." You said sadly getting up from your seat stretching. "it's been real fun."

"Come round again tomorrow!" Kankuro said enthusiastically.

"Can't, got missions and stuff to do." You replied, "Maybe if we finish up early or something. I'm definitely free the day after though."

"Cool, so we'll see ya sometime soon, then." Temari said as you walked to the front door, "it was great having you round."

"Yeah, it was great coming to visit. See ya!" you said before stepping outside and walking down the road.

The sun had already set so it was getting kind of dark out. You couldn't really tell where you were or where you were heading; you really should have taken a map or something.

"Hey pretty lady, where'd ya think you're going?" A dodgy looking guy called as his mates wolf whistled when you walked past.

"_Just ignore them, just ignore them," _you thought to yourself, _"they'll give up eventually.... Yeah right, just keep telling yourself that. That'll work. Awww man, I need help."_

Suddenly one of the men grabbed your wrist. You tried to tug it out of his hands, but he had a really strong grip. You could smell his breath; it stank badly of alcohol. Yuck! And you weren't even standing that closed to him either! Seeming as he wouldn't let go you panicked and lashed out at him. You punched him in the stomach with your free hand and winded him. You seized the opportunity and made a run for it.

"HEY! COME BACK HERE!" one of his mates shouted angrily.

It reminded you so much of Yoriwa-san, all those years ago. This just made matters worse for you as you panicked again, making a wrong turning into a dark ally. Dead end- one way a large steal fence that you probably wouldn't be able to climb fast enough, the other way the drunken men had already reached. They had you cornered in right where they wanted you.

"Hehehe... Stupid brat, you're gonna pay for that." The drunk you had hit said, taking a step forward towards you.

You prayed for a miracle.

"Get away from her."

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**Dun dun duuuuuuuh~~! **

**Cliff hanger! Heh, I remember how much I used to hate these things. I suppose you get used to them after a while. ^_^ **

**I'm really starting to get into this whole writing stuff, it's fun! I'm thinking of drawing the sand siblings house maybe, to put up on DA so you can all see what I'm thinking their house would look like. That would be useful for you.... maybe.**

**I'm not exactly **_**the**_** best with words...**

**Review, comment, ect. Please!**

**Thanks once again 3**

**Michy-chan **


	6. Lost and Saved

**Thanks to; Michelle, Krakengirl, LadyAmazon & lovetoanime for their comments, story favs and story alerts :D**

**Thanks loads, you guys rock!**

**Oh, by the way; I've put the pictures up on Deviant ART if you want to look at them. My Da account is foreva-forgetting so if you type into the search bar "by:foreva-forgetting" you'll be able to see all my stuff. There should be three of this story's OC characters up there.**

**Discliamer: I disclaim it. What else can I say? =S**

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"Get away from her."

You looked up to see who said that. Up on the roof, dangling his feet down watching the scene below was Gaara, his mint green/icy blue eyes piercing down at the drunkards.

"Gaah!" The man gasped in horror, taking more than a step back again but too petrified to move any further. "S-s-s-sor-"

"You don't need to apologise, just get out of here." Gaara interrupted him in a monotone voice.

They legged it, running for their lives. Gaara disappeared in a puff of sand and reappeared a meter or two away from you.

"You ok?" he asked. You nodded.

"Yeah, thanks for that," you replied in relief, embarrassed about having to be rescued. You were a ninja for pity's sake!

"You honestly shouldn't-"

"Aww, please don't give me that lecture! I get it all the time from Naruto. I swear it was just this one off occasion," you almost begged him, not wanting to have to listen to the same old speech over and over again. "Can you just help me find my way home, please?"

"Errr... sure." Gaara muttered flushing a bit. Why was he going red? You only needed him to walk you home.

"Thank you~!" you cheered happily, latching yourself onto his arm which cause him to tense up, "Well then, lead the way!"

"To where exactly?"

"My house is near the town market. If you can get me there I'm pretty sure I can find my way home."

The two of you walked to the market place making very little conversation. Gaara wasn't really the talkative type. The silence was sort of awkward for you, but he seemed to be perfectly fine with it. Perfectly used to it.

He wasn't looking at you, so you felt obliged to stare at him, noting all the details of his face. He was a slight bit taller than you (but you were kind of short like Naruto so that didn't really make him that tall really). His face was smooth, round and pale, the dark circles of insomnia round his eyes making them stand out more than what they already did with that beautiful colour. On his left-hand side of his face, he had a scar, or tattoo in the shape of the kanji symbol for 'love'. You wondered if that had any special meaning for him, but felt too shy and embarrassed to ask. You didn't want to seem too curious or nosy- that was impolite and you knew a lot about impolite. Naruto was a perfect example of what you should and should not do most of the time.

"We're here." He said as he stopped walking and turned to face you. It took you a moment to snap out of your trance and realise where you were. The town market place.

"Errrr... right.... I think it's..." you looked around twice just to make sure you were where you thought you were, "This way."

"You sure?"

Damn. He had you there.

"I'm pretty sure." You replied.

"You don't sound too certain."

"Hey look, I've only been in town for about a week. Lighten up will ya, I'm not great at directions." You snapped.

Well, it was true. You still got lost round Konoha easily even though you'd been living there for 6 years already. You knew your way round kind of well, but you still sometimes had to go up to some high place and get out a map to figure out where you were or randomly send out shadow clones to find the way for you or find Naruto or one of your friends to come help you- which was really embarrassing. As you looked around trying to figure out where you were exactly in the market place, Gaara watched you.

That didn't help one bit.

"Alrighty, let's try this way!" you said pointing down some random road that looked like the right one.

"It's pointless if you're just going to get lost. What's the name of the road you live on?" Gaara asked sighing, folding his arms.

_Damn, he looks kinda cute like that. Woah, wait, what am I saying- well thinking?_

"Ummm... sand dust avenue?" you said, completely unsure. "Something like that."

"You mean Sand Dust Avenue." Gaara corrected you, "It's this one."

He was pointing in a total opposite direction to you.

"Ah, right, sorry! Thanks for this." You mumbled gratefully, turning red.

"It's nothing; I'm just repaying a debt."

"To who?" you asked confused. He didn't owe _you _anything.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Gaara replied, "he... helped me a lot."

"He doesn't hold it against you as a debt or anything." You said as you continued up the street. "Actually, he just thinks of it as a sort of favor for a friend. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Whatever he said or done to you was probably what he felt was the right thing to do and done it on his own free will. He's just like that."

"I still owe him."

"Well this sort of isn't really paying him back- although I'm sure he'd be very grateful. It just means that I sort of owe you one now. Which may even things out... I'm not sure." You thought for a moment.

"Maybe," Gaara replied, "but I still want to do it anyway."

You smiled at him. "Thanks."

You reached the house and got out our keys that your obasan had given you. You gave him a small hug goodbye after you opened the door and as he walked away you shut it behind you.

"Ah, Cami-chan! I was wondering when you were going to come home!" you aunt greeted you from the living room.

"Sorry Obasan, I got a little lost on the way." You told her as you took your trainers off and walked into the living room. To your surprise, your aunt had some visitors. There were about 5 of them, 3 were about her age, two of them definitely older.

"Cami-chan, these are some of the village counsellors." Your aunt introduced them.

_Great village elders... or "Counsellors" as they call them here, What do they want?_

"Nice to meet you, Camiko-san." The only female said, she was one of the "definitely older" people, "we're here on important business, can we speak with you in private."

This reminded you of the time the village elders of konoha came to speak with you about you 'special powers' as they called them. About what happened with Haruki that day, about why and how it had happened.

"Ok, sure." You said calmly as your heart pounded in your chest as if it were trying to smash it's way through your rib cage.

Your aunt left the room so that the village elders could speak with you.

"We have a mission for you..."

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**AHA! Another sort of cliff hanger, although this one isn't so bad. =D**

** I've sort of got a bit of writers block at the moment; I've got the ideas for the next chapter in my head but I'm struggling to force myself to sit down and type. Also I don't have a clue really what I'm going to do next... maybe I'll make something big happen....**

**Feedbacks please people! =D And thanks once again~!  
**

**Michy-chan.**


	7. Secrets

**Chapter 7: Secrets.**

**HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!! =D (sorry, I'm mildly chocolate high at the mo.)**

**Disclaimer: Oddly enough... I don't really wish I owned Naruto, so I'm not going to pretend I do.**

**If I did own Naruto, I would know how it was going to end, who was going to die and I'd change that so no one died- I would say only the "baddies" but I like some of the Akatsuki members so I'd be keeping them ******** . I'd also make sure-**

**...**

**You don't really want to listen to me rant on now do you?**

**On with the story!!! =D**

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"We have a mission for you," one of the younger village council members began, "it involves those 'special abilities' of yours."

"W-what special abilities?" you lied, not really liking where this was going, "I don't ha-"

"There is no reason to lie to us, we already know everything." _ I doubt that._ "Konoha had given us all of your records before we had even allowed Uzumaki Natsuko-san to know of your existence. The council believe that your 'special abilities' could be of great help to us with our little 'problem'."

There wasn't really any point in denying anything now. If they had your records then they definitely knew about the 'incident'. No point in lying if no one was going to believe you.

"OK, fine. Let's here the mission, but these 'special abilities' have only ever brought pain and suffering- there's no actual controlling it other than me not letting my emotions get the better of me." You sighed.

"Your powers don't just bring pain and suffering- if you learn how to you could use them for other things. We have found many books with examples of great ninja in the past that have been able to exhort great control over the jinjuriki; which is what we need you to do. Gain control over the ichibi demon. Of course, we're not planning on making you go near to it just yet. Learn from the books first and the actual practice will happen later. But you must understand- this is for the good of the village and its people,"

You thought things over for a moment inside your head. So they were asking you to control and manipulate Gaara? But he hadn't done anything to deserve that sort of treatment- well maybe he had done in the past, but most of the people he killed were actually trying to assassinate him so he was only defending himself. Or at least that's what you had heard from the rumours you'd been told so far. You took in a deep breath and gave the five council members your responce.

"To be perfectly honest, I couldn't care less about this village or the majority of its people" you began, your voice which was full of anger now and beginning to get louder, "I don't accept your mission, instead I'm going to do it to prove to you people that Gaara isn't a monster; he's a human, just the same as anyone else in this town. The only difference between him and everybody else is that he's made- no, he's been forced into making the sacrifice of having a monster stuck inside of him and being lonely for the whole of his life just for the sake of this village. You want to know why I'm getting so defensive? My brother's a jinjuriki, and he still has hopes and dreams, friends and enemies just the same as any other person because he is the same as any other person. If you insult Gaara because of anything to do with him being a jinjuriki then you're insulting my brother and therefore offending me and I will not stand for it! Good day."

And with that you strode out of the room. Your aunt Natsuko must've heard everything as she was standing just outside of the room and you were speaking fairly loudly. She said nothing as you past her and made your way up the stairs and to your room. You closed the door silently behind you, locking it. There was no need to slam the door and show them all how irresponsible you could be- no, there was no point in doing anything reckless- you weren't Naruto. But you still didn't want to be disturbed, you weren't in the mood.

You collapsed onto your bed in exhaustion; the only thing keeping you awake was your rage. Great... too angry to sleep yet to tired to vent your anger out by training. There was only one cure for moments like this; music and art! You took out your ipod and started playing to your favorite song (I'm not telling you what your favorite is- I mean it's your favorite, how should I know?). As you listened to your music you began to draw on a piece of paper from your sketch book.

You liked to draw. In a way,it was fun. You drew some of the buildings in the village that you could remember rough sketches of the market place, a couple of carton strips of your new friends here in Suna. Soon you found yourself drawing pictures of your old friends from konoha and you realised just how much you still missed them. In just over a week you had already sent them at least one letter each. You sighed, pushing all of the drawings to one side. You began to sketch again. This time you drew some eyes- piercing cold ones with dark rings around them. Gaara's eyes.

"Camika-chan, are you alright?"

It was obasan. She was standing in front of the closed bedroom door, leaning against it slightly. You hadn't heard or sensed her come in as you were too wrapped up in your work.

"Yeah, I'm fine," you said taking out your earphones and turned them off; it was rude to take to someone with them in and still playing.

"That's good to know, just checking. What are you doing?" she asked coming over.

"None of your business, Gaara." You said with a smirk on your face and utter confidence.

She looked confused for a moment, "I'm not-"

"Yes you are, don't lie to me. My bedroom door is locked- my aunt wouldn't have been able to get in. Also, your chakra aura is hidden really well- too well. Obasan never does that; first reason being she doesn't need to, second probably being she doesn't even know how. And another thing," you stood up, grabbing the cup of water that you kept by your bedside table and chucked it over the impostor, "my aunt's skin doesn't do that when water is added."

The false layer of what was now wet sand crumbled off and fell to the floor, revealing behind the mask a rather stunned and confused Gaara.

"I- I still don't get it. How'd you know it was me and not some other ninja?"

"You've got a special aura that you can't cover up and that only I can sense as well," you said simply, "Naruto's got one too... only if this aura was on a colour chart; his would be more reddy-orange. Yours is more tanned/yellow."

Gaara stood there staring at you, still not quite knowing what to say. So you continued the conversation for him.

"Why were you sneaking into my room, pretending to be my aunt?" you asked suspiciously

"Well, I was... uhhh...-"

"And no more lies!"

He let out a sigh.

"I sensed the council members' chakra inside your house when we were walking up the road. I was sort of worried and a bit curious as to what they wanted, so I decided to stick around."

_Ah..._

"So what did they want?" Gaara asked, taking a seat at the end of your bed. You sat back down on the chair by your desk- where you were before Gaara had entered.

"Do I have to answer that?"

"Well, it would be nice, seeming as that's why I asked" Gaara muttered, "but you don't have to if you don't want to- if it's private I won't butt in."

You sighed, "Well, it is kind of about you, so it's only fair that I tell you."

Gaara looked shocked for a moment, as you tried to figure out inside your head what you were going to say.

"It is kind of complicated, and a lot of it very personal- stuff that only Naruto really knows about. Basically; I've got these powers that can do 'bad things'. They were trying to convince me that I could learn how to control them I could learn how to use them for 'good things' instead. They didn't have me too convinced though. Naruto knows the details on the whole 'bad powers' thing..."

Gaara thought for a second, "I don't see how that has anything to do with me,"

"I might tell you what the 'special powers' are someday.... maybe" you continued "but it does have something to do with you, trust me. I declined the mission, but I don't think they'll give up. They seemed pretty keen on 'controlling you' or something like that... That's what they wanted me to use my powers for."

"Oh..." Gaara looked down for a moment, sadness filled his voice.

He then looked up and stared at you in the eyes. It felt as if he were seeing into the back of your mind, reading your every thought. You could see in his eyes the sadness that he felt; that the village council didn't trust him and didn't think that he was safe for people to be around.

_Quick, change of subject!_

"So how'd you find out where was my room exactly?" you asked. Come to think of it, you did have the curtains shut and the windows closed, so how did he see you and how did he get in?

"I saw you in this room the other day when you went to bed. I don't know why but when I saw you yesterday, you really interested me, so I followed you around. I wanted to see what you were like. You seem quite a normal person... but I guess now that there's more to you then what meets the eye." He said this with no shame or embarrassment, without even taking his eyes off of yours. "I suppose you want to know how I got in too; well I got in using my sand."

"I knew I was being followed!" you almost shouted covering your mouth with your hands suddenly remembering to turn your voice down. There were still other people in the house.

"Don't worry; no one is going to hear us." Gaara explained, "I sound proofed the room using my sand."

"Oh, phew. Your sand does a lot of useful things..." You relaxed a bit, knowing that it was safe. "Hey, do you know if the council members are still downstairs?"

"Yes, they left a while ago, when you began drawing those pictures."

You paused for a moment. Just how long had he been watching you?

"Can I see them?" he asked. You saw no harm in letting him look.

You handed him your art work and lay down on your bed, stretching out. The rage was all gone now, but you badly wanted to stay up and get to know Gaara a bit more. He was strong, good at hiding his aura, quite shy round lots of people but when it was just you and him it seemed he was beginning to open up more and more. You liked that he was opening up to you; you really wanted to know more about him. He flicked through your art work stopping at one for a moment, before moving on to look at the next. You closed your eyes and relaxed, listening to the sound of the rustling of paper as he rummaged through your work. There were a lot of drawings; you could draw quite a lot in a short period of time, and at a high quality too! You noticed that the shuffling noises had stopped and opened your eyes to look at him. He was sitting there staring at one piece of paper.

"_What? Did I draw something weird? He's staring at this one for quite a while now..._" you rolled over to face him properly and then realised what bit of paper he was holding. It was that last one you had drawn of his eyes.

He looked up at you and you smiled sheepishly.

"You drew my eyes?"

"They're pretty," it was the only real excuse you could think of, and it was the honest truth. Gaara went back to staring at the paper.

"You know, it doesn't matter how much you stare at it; it's still going to look the same. It's not an optical illusion you know." You said sarcastically before yawning.

"You look tired, you should get some rest."

"I could say the same for you."

"I can't sleep."

"I can see that. Those circles round your eyes are so dark looks as if you're wearing makeup, has anyone ever told you that?"

"Yeah, your brother."

"Oh... Well you know what they say; great minds think alike and fools seldom differ. I guess we're a bit of both really. A lot of the time it's as if he can read my thoughts, or as if we're thinking the same things..." you wittered on, yawning again, "Come lie down next to me. Get some rest, you need it."

Gaara shook his head, "No, I told you I can't sleep, even if I really wanted to."

You sensed that there was a secret meaning behind that, "tell me."

Gaara shook his head, "Shukaku will break lose."

"Ah.... okay then. You can't really call it rest if you know that that's going to happen." You got up off of the bed and grabbed your pajamas. "I just gotta get changed and ready for bed. You can leave if you want; no one's forcing you to stay, but I'm really curious... I want to get to know you better, so I'm inviting you to stay the night, even if you're not going to sleep."

_That way, I'll be able to spend as much time possible getting to know him._

"Curiosity killed the cat," Gaara quoted, folding his arms with an expressionless face.

"But the answer brought it back to life again," you retorted, "besides; cats have 9 lives."

"Then how'd you know it wasn't one of the nine lives that brought it back?"

"Because this cat that we're talking about said so, that's how we know."

A hint of amusement slipped across the red headed boy's face for a second in the form of a small smirk, "But what if the cat didn't know for certain and this other cat that's curious only has one life."

"Are you calling me a cat?!"

"No, no one is calling you a cat. I'm just saying that this cat that we're talking has a friend cat with only one life and a lot of curiosity that could get it into a load of trouble" Gaara couldn't help but smirk as he said this.

Unlike Sasuke's smirk, this one didn't annoy you- in fact you were finding this whole situation rather entertaining. It was a fun game.

"Well I'm sure that that kitty can take care of his or herself. Now if you excuse me for a moment, I'm going to the bathroom" you said unlocking the door and sneaking across the hall not wanting to disturb your aunt, whether she was asleep or not.

You came back to your room after you had got changed into your pjs, washed your face and brushed your teeth. You were extremely pleased to find Gaara sitting up on your bed under the covers. You grinned.

"Nice to see you've decided to stick around."

"It's only till you fall asleep, I've got to be home before morning. No one knows I'm gone."

You nodded, getting under the covers and wrapped your arms tightly round his waist, holding him there still so he couldn't. You couldn't help it; he was nice, warm and surprisingly cuddly, you really wanted to hug him. He smelt good too, you couldn't actually decide what the smell really was; but it smelt good. Gaara blushed as you snuggled up even closer to him, closing your eyes. He lay down next to you, resting his head on the pillow. Good thing that your aunt had given you a big bed- not that it mattered because you were probably close enough to fit on a small single bed. You breathed deeply and relaxed.

"Hmm... Nighty night, Gaara-kun." You whispered, as the drowsiness overwhelmed you and was pulling you into yet another deep and peaceful sleep.

Before you lost complete consciousness you heard Gaara murmur one last thing to you:

"Good night and sweet dreams."

* * *

**Sorry, had to put the fluff at the end there ^-^ 3**

**I think I cured my writers block for now.... Still a bit clueless as to where I'm going with this story... I think I know what I'm going to do next though =D **

**Wow... Over 250 hits and over 110 visitors from all round the world =O I'm actually so amazed!**

**I'm mostly getting reviews from the USA (no problem with that thought =D). I'm from England btw, that's sort of why I found it odd ^_^**

**Michy-chan**


	8. The Latest Discovery

_Sorry about this people, I'm going to re-write the story starting from about halfway through this chapter. I've REALLY been struggling to get myself to write up chapter 11 and I was reading a story by another author on fanfiction and she's re-typing a sequel to one of her stories. _

_People so far haven't really liked it but she gave a huge rant generally saying how she didn't care, that she was writing cause that's what she wanted to do so she was going to write what she wanted and not what other people wanted. It really inspired me to re-write some of my story that I don't really like at the moment, so that's what I'm going to do- starting with this chapter. I hope you don't mind and I'm sorry for the lateness of... well, everything!_

_Michy-chan 17/5/09 (or if you're American the date would be 5/17/09 I believe =] )_

**  
Chapter 8: The Latest Discovery!**

**OMG! I'm actually one of some people's fav. authors, I'm so happy . =D **

**Disclaimer: I Don't Own This. Only my OC people =p**

You woke up but didn't open your eyes. You felt so warm and cosy that you wanted to stay there forever. But the day had already begun and you had missions to do with your team. You managed to open your eyes, rubbing them a couple of times until your vision stopped being so blurry. You tried to sit up, but something was pinning you down from your waist area. Something heavy.

You looked down. Lying on top of you was Gaara; sound asleep, his head resting on your chest.

"_aawwwww, isn't that sweet! He looks so adorable when he'd sleeping!" _you cooed inside your head as you stoked his soft red hair. He nuzzled into your chest a bit more, appreciating the warmth and comfort.

_Hang on a minute...._

Gaara? Sleeping? On your CHEST?!?

Suddenly alarmed you pushed him up off of you- waking him up. You held him at arms distance as he slowly opened his eyes. You let go of him, still looking at him in shock.

"hmmmm.. what?"

"Gaara- You was sleeping. On me,"

"No I wasn't" he denied it sleepily rubbing his eyes.

_Damn he looked cute. No! Bad pervy thoughts. Back, back!_

"Oh so you were burying your head in my chest on purpose then?" you asked, going red in the face. You almost felt like screaming at him, for lots of different reasons.

"Wha..? NO! I didn't... did I?" he seemed to be waking up a bit now.

"Well you must have been. Your eyes were shut you were breathing deeply and slowly and you seemed very relaxed and peaceful" _not to mention cute- NO! No more naughty thoughts! Bad inner fangirl, bad!_

"But then... how come Shukaku didn't go on rampage?" Gaara asked.

"I don't... oh!" It then struck you:

You'd told him to go to sleep, to get some rest.

Gaara wouldn't be at rest if he knew the Shukaku demon was out and hurting people, so maybe you sub-consciously ordered the demon to not break lose...?

It sounded weird but it was the best explanation you had... but could you tell Gaara?

Would he believe you? Probably.

"What? Tell me." Gaara asked calmly but you could tell that underneath it all, he wasn't feeling so calm.

"Nothing, don't worry about it... I'll tell you later sometime"

Gaara looked slightly disappointed. You looked away but in your head you could imagine him pouting... which you found was much worse.

"Cami-chan, breakfast time!" Natsuko called from the kitchen.

"Coming Obasan!" you called back. "Sorry Gaara-kun, I promise I'll tell you as soon as I can, but it's sort of all one really big secret and I want to get to know you more before I start trusting you with these sort of things."

"It's ok," Gaara sighed, getting up out of bed sighing, "I guess I should get going now..."

"Hey Gaara-kun, can I ask you something?" you mumbled shyly.

"Sure."

"Why didn't you leave last night? N-not that I'm not grateful you didn't I-I was just wondering if there was any r-reason behind it!" you stuttered, feeling really flustered and embarrassed.

"Hn... I'm not sure... I just wanted to stay. I guess it's because I wanted to get to know you better too." Gaara said thoughtfully "that, plus when you hugged me while you were asleep your grip was too tight for me to escape. I guess that's why I fell asleep there"

"Ah..." well that was sort of what you were aiming for, "S-sorry about that."

"Doesn't matter... I kind of enjoyed it..." Gaara muttered under his breath only just loud enough for you to hear.

You blushed, almost turning as red as your hair. He'd gone slightly flushed in the cheeks as well.

"Well, I'll see ya round" you said turning away to head down for breakfast.

"Wait!" Gaara said.

You stopped and turned around to face him, "Hm?"

"C-could- well... I mean... uh- a-are we friends?" Gaara seemed a bit embarrassed for asking this question. You couldn't help but find him cute as he flushed.

"Of course!" you answered giving him your Uzumaki grin, "Heck, a friend of my brothers is a friend of mine, so you were really my friend before we even met. But yeah, we're both friends now."

"Good, I just wanted to make sure," Gaara answered. You could have sworn for a moment you saw a small smile on his lips before he turned to go out the window, "I'll be leaving now."

"`kay, see ya!" you said going to out the door, "Oh, and Gaara-kun?"

"Hn?"

"Next time I go round your house, would you stay downstairs with me , Temari-chan and Kankuro-kun? I mean, that would be nice, if you could... please?"

"hn." Was his only reply before disappearing out the window.

"_Was that a yes 'hn' or a no 'hn' ?" _you asked yourself as you jogged down the stairs.

"Morning Obasan!" you greeted your aunt cheerfully as you sat down at the table.

Cereal today, Yum! You poured out a bowl for yourself and added some milk before shovelling it down.

"You seem perky this morning, doing anything exciting today?" you aunt asked. Apparently she had either forgotten about or didn't hear what you said last night, but you got the feeling that she had heard and was just pretending not to care/ that she didn't hear. After all, she said she trusted you and she meant it.

"Nothing out of the usual really; just some missions with the team, might be meeting up with Temari-chan again. They invited me back round their house again so if I'm not too tired and I have the time to this evening I might be going back over there. Is that ok?" you asked uncertainly.

"Sure, I take it you had fun yesterday."

"Yeah it was great! Hung out with Temari and her brother Kankuro and we watched a movie and played some video games."

"Sounds fun," you aunt smiled taking a sip of her cup of tea and too another bite out of her toast, "Have you met that boy yet?"

"Hn? What boy?"

"That boy that you were talking about wanting to meet; the one your brother told you about." Your aunt asked, "Have you found him yet?"

"Oh, yeah." You answered blushing, "He's quite quiet but he's opening up to me little by little... He's kind of sweet."

"What's his name?"

You _almost_ began to chock on your cereal. At that moment the door knocked and your aunt had to answer it. You quickly downed the rest of your bowl of cereal and stuck your bowl in the sink.

"Cami-chan, it's your teammate. He's come to pick you up." Your aunt said returning to the room, "Apparently you're meeting your sensei somewhere else today."

"Oh, okay." You called. "Just gotta get changed, I'll be back down in a minute!"

"Alright!" it was Yuki that had came to pick you up.

You rushed your shower and got dressed in your ninja gear as quickly as you could. You put your necklace on again and grabbed your ninja pouch, fastening it to your belt as you jogged back down the stairs to greet your mate.

"Got to go, obasan! I'll see you later" you called, as you pushed Yuki out the door in front of you.

"Ok, see you."

**I've drawn the sand sib's kitchen... it's taken be a while but I've gone over it in ink and everything... I might add colour, but first I'm going to put it up on DA when I find the time. **

**Glad you all like the story so far~!**

**Michy-chan. **


	9. Mission, work, fun?

**Chapter 9: Mission, Work, Fun?**

**I put the black and white version of the sand sibling's kitchen on my DA account. I'll do the colour version and the living room design.... sometime.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters ^_^**

** ...**

**

* * *

  
**

_Last chapter: You discover that Gaara can go to sleep without the Shukaku breaking lose and destroying everything if you order it not. Yuki came to pick you up before you headed out to meet your team._

"What's all the pushing for?" Yuki asked as soon as you were out of the house and the door was shut behind you.

"THANK YOU Yuki-kun, you're a life saver!" You really didn't want to answer you're obasan's questions as you felt that she wouldn't quite understand, "You just helped me escape from a really awkward thing."

Yuki gave you an odd look.

"Uh, it's to do with-"

"If it's personal, I don't want to know." Yuki said bluntly. You smiled.

"Cool, thanks. Hey, where's Sora-kun?"

"Not sure. He said he had to meet up with someone or something and that he'd meet up with us outside the market area somewhere" Yuki said vaguely not really caring much at all.

You got to the market place and kept your eyes peeled- looking for Sora. Yuki didn't seem that bothered and just carried on strolling at a casual pace. You carried on walking until you got to a small cafe. Yuki stopped just outside, next to the window. You looked in and to your surprise, on one of the tables sat Sora. He was drinking a steaming cup of something; chatting to a young girl he was sitting across from. You couldn't see her face as her back was facing you, but her hair was purple, silky, curled and went just past her shoulders. Sora was chatting away merrily to her and he seemed to be really enjoying her company. Yuki knocked on the window of the cafe, making you jump and Sora plus his companion look up. She was very pretty- her face was round and cute, her skin smooth and just the right complexion and her eyes were a crimson-red, romantic colour. Yuki motioned for Sora to come join you outside. He said goodbye to the girl he was with as he got up from the table- leaving some cash to pay for his hot drink before leaving the shop.

"Can't I-" Sora began.

"No," Yuki interrupted sternly as he walked away from the cafe, "now come on, we've got to go meet sensei."

Sora sighed and you smiled sympathetically at him.

"There's always later" you reminded him.

"Yeah, I suppose," he mumbled, dragging his feet as you both fallowed Yuki to wherever he was going.

...

* * *

"Uh, Yuki-kun, isn't this the hospital?" you asked as you entered in and looked around. As hospitals can go, it was very different from the hospital you were used to in Konoha, but was still recognisably a hospital.

"Yeah it is, Suna's best. Sensei got into a bit of trouble during his jonin mission yesterday and ended up stuck here for the next few days." Yuki answered before turning to the nurse at the desk and asking for Sakuma-sensei's room.

"You could have told us earlier," Sora huffed, crossing his arms and pouting, "then we could have gotten him a get well card or something."

"_I wonder if sensei likes chocolate..." _you thought to yourself randomly.

"Yeah, well we're just going to have to do that in our own time." Yuki said, "Come on, it's this way."

When you got to your sensei's room, you knocked twice before entering. Your sensei was sitting up in his bed, a nurse re-bandaging his arm.

"Hey Sakuma sensei, feeling ok?" you asked taking a seat next to his bed.

"Yeah, my whole arm has gone numb. I can't feel it at all," your sensei replied in utter amusement. You could have sworn being hurt and stuck in hospital should not have been so fun- for anyone.

"Well, it's good to see that you're not in any great deal of pain," Sora said, standing behind you leaning against the wall, "plus I guess that means we get the day off-"

"Nu-uh, I'm afraid not," you sensei corrected him, earning a groan from all three of you, "you'll be helping out with teaching the academy students. I'm not really sure who you're working with but one of them should be arriving soon to take you over there..."

As soon as you're sensei finished his sentence there was a knock at the door.

"Ah, that's probably them. Come in!" Sakuma sensei called.

The door opened and, much to your surprise, Temari walked in.

"TEMARI-CHAN~!" you screamed in delight, flinging yourself at her locking her in a bone crushing hug, "WOW~! We're working with you today?"

"Ah, Cami-chan!" Temari was confused momentarily before hugging back, "yeah I guess it does,"

She began trying to peal you off of her as you refused to let go (a bit too hyper and caught up in the moment).

"This is actually going to be so fun~! Who's your team? What are they like?"

"Camika-chan, please release her from your death grip," Yuki said grinning, (after all, he knew what your hugs were like; you'd given him a bear hug before and almost broke his ribs), "so she's a friend of yours?"

"Yup" you said letting go, laughing when Temari took a deep breath finally able to breathe again, "So come on, Tema-chan. Answers please~! Who's in your team? Not that it matters `cause I probably don't know them,"

"Actually you do. They're my brothers. Baki was our sensei but since we've been taking care of things at the academy he's not really been working with us. I don't think he likes kids," Temari said.

"SERIOUSLY?!" your jaw was going to hit the floor, "I mean, I don't think either of your brothers are the type to like kids particularly..."

"Yeah, I know. Kankuro _hates_ them, but they aren't that much younger than us so he tolerates them. And well, Gaara-kun's only got one student to work with, brave young girl... Matsuri, I think her name is..."

"Wow... Go her, that'd take a lot of guts," You said nodding.

"Yeah..." Temari agreed thoughtfully.

"Wait... Are you..? Do you mean..?" Sora gave the two of you an odd look.

"Are you saying that Gaara of the desert is teaching kids," Yuki finished for him, "and that we have to work with him?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Temari said.

Sora and Yuki stood there with their mouths wide open in shock.

"Alright, alright! It's a little bit shocking, I know but still; you're all more than capable ninja and it's not as if you're dumb enough to provoke him. Also, the rest of his team are there so you'll be fine and-" Sakuma sensei began to explain

"And it's not as if he's really a monster." You finished with an insisting tone. Everyone in the room stayed quiet, "Right then, let's go~!"

...

* * *

Gaara's POV

Temari was taking her time bringing the other team to where you were. Kankuro had explained to them what was happening and said Temari would be back soon but damn she really was taking her time about it. You just wanted to get started working with Matsuri, helping her improve her aim; it wasn't as if it mattered who the new people were to you because it's not as if they were even going to talk to you anyway. Other than your brother and sister, there was only one other person that taked to you who _might_ show up, but that was a very slim chance, so there was no point in hoping.

"Gaara-sensei," Matsuri muttered stepping forward towards you, "shouldn't we just get started?"

"Hn, sure." You said, about to head over to the target boards but something made your sand guard rise. You turned to see what it was.

"WOW, that is so cool~! Your sand really can do loads of neat stuff!" a friendly and familiar voice chirped happily.

"_no way..."_

It was Camika. You actually couldn't believe your luck. You felt your heart tingle on the inside, it felt... sort of warm and fuzzy. You wondered what it really meant; you weren't too good with feelings. Maybe you should ask Temari later...

"Camika-chan," Kankuro greeted her grinning, "Good to see ya!"

"Yeah, good to see you too. I actually can't believe we're working together today!" Camika replied smiling her usual grin, "Our sensei got hurt on one of his jonin missions yesterday so he has to stay in hospital for a while so that's why we're here. Sakuma sensei probably won't be out of hospital for at least a week, so this is going be fun!"

...

* * *

**I only made a few small changes to this; I just changed it so that Sora doesn't have a crush on you... I don't really like that idea.**

**I'm making no promises on how fast I'm going to update again, sorry people =)**

**Michy-chan**


	10. Sparing Sessions

**Chapter 10: Sparing Session.**

**Lmao, yeah, I'm just playing pokemon while on msn while typing up this next chapter. It's `cause I'm awesome like that xD **

**Ok, I lie. It ain't really working for me. I'll stop now...**

**Disclaimer: Sure I own Naruto *gets stabbed in the back by copy right people* Okay, I lied agian. I don't really. T_T**

Back to the normal Point of View (your POV). I find it difficult enough getting Gaara's character right, let alone getting inside his head =S

"Alright everybody gather round" Temari shouted at the students and the circled round the six of you genin/chunin, "Now, as you probably already know we're going to have 3 more people helping teach here so here's how it's going to work."

She turned to Kankuro "How're we going to do this?" she whispered.

"I thought you had a plan!" he whispered back. Clearly they weren't that organised.

"First, we're going to get you to re-choose your sensei. This time you can choose one of these three who'll be the ones that are working with us for a week or so." Temari announced.

The students lined up in front of the sensei they wished to work with. You had quite a few students-14 in total. There were around 8 girls and group of 6 male students who you weren't that too sure about. Great, you were landed with the trouble students. Most of the female students had went to work under Sora (surprise, surprise) but seeming as he had too many a few of them had been shipped off to Yuki, who had mainly boys who were enthusiastic about being a ninja. Kankuro had just about the same type of students and Temari had a group of girls. One of the girls in your group you recognised as the girl Sora was at the cafe with this morning. As you looked right at her in the eye she turned away blushing bright red- almost the same colour as her eyes.

Gaara's group was as non-group like as ever; consisting of only that Matsuri girl you still hadn't had the chance to speak with yet. You kind of wondered why she had chosen to work with Gaara; what had given her the courage.

"Hey, Temari-chan." You whispered, "Why don't we put the separate groups into pairs?"

"But that would mean someone would have to work with Gaara and these kids don't really-"

"I know, I know. I'll work with him. There are a few boys in my group who I don't like the look of. They look at me in a weird way." You explained.

"Ah them, I had to deal with them too. They're perverts, just give them a good beating or yelling at and they'll leave you alone- trust me." Temari whispered to you an evil look on her face, "But I guess a good scaring from Gaara wouldn't be so bad for them."

"Exactly what I was thinking, plus it'll even things out a bit. My groups a bit big and his is... well it's more of a duet or private training thing. You know what I mean."

"Yeah I know, but that couldn't really be helped... until now I guess. Well if that's what you want to do." Temari smiled at you.

"Thanks Temari-chan! You can tell the others, I don't do speaking to really large groups of people," you said grinning.

...

"Alright everyone!" Temari shouted getting everybody's attention, "we're going to have the leaders pair up their groups so it's easier for the newbies to teach"

She looked at you from the corner of her eye when she said this- just as a tease, you gave her the 'evil eye' back before grinning. You turned to look at Gaara- he was looking straight at you so you gave him a quick smile.

"work with me." You asked him. He looked stunned for a moment but nodded gratefully anyway.

"Great" you grinned.

"Hey, Cami-chan, do you want to pair up with me?" Sora called, asking cheerfully, "Just `cause I was with some girl this morning doesn't mean I don't really like you."

"Sorry, Sora-kun" you turned him down gently, "me and Gaara-kun have already teamed up. Plus I've got a few students I think are going to... err.... be difficult."

"Oh.... ok. That's cool" Sora muttered disappointedly, before shaking it off and asking Temari to be his partner.

You gave a sigh.

_What a total womanizer._ You thought as you walked over to where Gaara and the group were. Gaara and Matsuri where standing a small distance from the group talking quietly while the group of kids were chatting loudly and bubbly amongst themselves.

"OK EVERYONE, LISTEN UP!" you shouted to get them to quieten down. As soon as silence was obtained you continued, addressing not just your group but Gaara and Matsuri as well, "My name's Uzumaki Camika and- obviously as you've chosen me- I'm going to be your sensei for a while. We'll be working with errr... well I would call you Gaara's group but there's only you so yeah. We'll be working together for now"

Matsuri blushed bit, as whispers started to circulate round your class.

"Come on Gaara, lighten my load a bit- I'm not the only teacher here, am I? Say something, they're your class too now and you'll never improve your social skills if you stay quiet like this. Tell `em we're going to be doing target practice or something." You whispered to Gaara.

"Okay," Gaara mumbled before addressing the crowd of students who immediately went silent, "You're going to be sparing together to practice you're taijutsu skills. You need to get into pairs so do that now."

"Wow, pretty good for off the top of your head." You said to him as the students got into their pairs, "just one problem; there's an odd number of students. What are we going to do with the one left over?"

"Well, it's probably going to be Matsuri-chan so... well, I don't do taijutsu so you'll have to work with her."

"But I'm a chunin?! She's not even a genin yet!" you thought for a moment, "although I used to spar with Naruto when I just became a chunin and he was still in the academy... Alright, fine I guess."

"Um, excuse me?" the girl who was with Sora at the cafe this morning came up to the two of you, "I-I don't have a partner."

"Wow... I guess you were wrong," you grinned at Gaara, "Ok, don't worry about it. You'll have to work with me. Sorry about that."

"I-it's ok" she mumbled.

"So what's your name?" you asked her.

"Tsukimi Chiaki" she introduced herself nervously.

"Nice to meet you, Chiaki-san." You said politely and then turned to the large group, "Now everyone's got their partners can you label yourselves 1 and 2. Number two's stand behind number one's and line up over here."

They did as you said- except for you and Chiaki- and you selected about half of the pairs.

"You lot are going to be sparing first, I'm sure you all know how to spar; it's basically just fighting only not without the intention of hospitalising the other person or killing them. Me and Chiaki-san will give you a demonstration. " you turned to Chiaki and whispered to her, "are you ok with that?"

"Err, sure I guess."

You smiled reassuringly at her, "Great, just stand over there and when Gaara-kun says for us to start you can try to hit me." You weren't going to lie to her, she could try all she wanted but it was highly unlikely that she would be able to touch you; you taijutsu-sparred with Rock Lee, "Gaara, when she's either been pinned for 3 seconds or cries uncle, you give the word that it's the end of the match"

They both nodded and Chiaki went and stood were you had pointed. You stood a few meters away facing her. The two of you got into battle stance.

"Begin." Gaara said bluntly and to the point. He sounded quite bored.

Chiaki came running at you and swung her fist. If it had hit you it probably would have hurt, but it didn't as you dodged it with ease. You could have buckled her or counter attacked but she was just a student so you didn't. She spun round and this time tried to kick you in the stomach. You blocked the kick- pushing her leg away from your body before it hit you. This time Chiaki was a bit quicker in her response and as soon as her foot hit the floor her fist was flying towards your face. You caught it quickly, not letting go when she pulled back. She pulled back again, harder and you let go so she fell backwards almost losing her footing. She regained her stance and tried to kick you again. Again you blocked and this time she spun round and tried to kick you. Once more you blocked so she jumped back before charging, jumping and swung her foot down. You stepped out of the way and her foot smacked the floor. It didn't hurt her, but she still stumbled away from you. That was your opening; you came flying at her, knocking her to the ground and pinning her there. 3... 2... 1...

"The winner is Cami-chan" Gaara said in a bored tone although you couldn't help but notice he watched the fight with enough interest. Maybe he was just doing his job.

"Don't feel bad about it," you said helping the stunned girl up, "I'm a chunin anyway, you didn't really stand a chance- but did real good, no worries!"

"Ok, thanks" she muttered still partially in shock.

"Those who are going first, space yourselves out round this area, the rest of you sit back and watch; try to learn some techniques from those who are currently fighting," Gaara ordered, and they did so.

Chiaki went and sat down with those who weren't fighting and started to chat. You went up and sat next to him on the small wall he was leaning against.

"You're doing good."

"They don't like me"

"So? They're listening to you and eventually they'll get used to you. I mean, it's not as if you've done anything that would be considered 'monster activity', so at least some of the more smart ones will be suspecting that you're not all that the rumours say."

"Hn..." Gaara looked at the floor sheepishly, "Temari found out."

"About what?" You asked confused.

"That I was out last night."

"Ohhh... What did she say? What did _you _say?"

"I told her the truth, except the sleeping part, because I'm not exactly sure what happened so I wouldn't be able to explain it to her. She said... uh..." you could have sworn Gaara was blushing slightly; it was hard to tell as he had his head down, "she said I should spend more time getting to know you..."

"Cool," you said casually, watching as the academy students went back and forth fighting. They weren't that very good, you'd have to teach them some blocks and how to kick and punch properly; some of them were really clueless. No one had anyone pinned to the ground and their attacks were not strong enough to do any real damage. Never mind. You looked over to where the other kids were sitting and watching. Most of them were actually chatting, Chiaki was chatting to Matsuri- they seemed to be getting along pretty well.

"OUCH!" you looked over to see who had gotten hurt.

"I'm so sorry!" a girl squealed, her partner was holding her cheek.

"That hurt! What the hell?!" her friend shouted at her.

"Let's see?" you asked steeping over to them. The fighting around them had stopped, the students taking the opportunity to catch their breath and take a small break. The black haired girl who was holding her face took her had away, "That's not so bad, it's not even going to bruise. I've had worse from just sparing."

"Sorry," the blond haired girl apologised again.

"Whatever, just be more careful next time," the darker haired girl mumbled.

"Well, she kind of was supposed to do that. That's what you do in a sparring match; you're practicing physical offence and defence, don't snap at her just `cause you couldn't defend yourself." You said calmly and casually.

She folded her arms and sulked. "But there's no need to hit so hard"

"Yeah there is, it'll get you to want to defend more. If you want to learn something it'll be easier for you to actually learn if you want to learn it. Plus an enemy in battle won't go so easy on you. It's good experience!"

The girl sulked, folding her arms and pouting. It wasn't a cute kind of pout either- more of a 'spoiled brat' sort of pout.

"Whatever, can I switch partners?"

You looked at the blond haired girl who just sighed, "Fine, fine. Who wants to work with her?" you asked the group.

"I want to spar with Matsuri-chan!" the dark hair girl said. She was really starting to get on your nerves, you weren't asking her.

"Matsuri-san? Are you ok with that?" you asked her.

Matsuri looked at Chiaki who said something to her before she got up and walked over to her.

"Sure,"

"Ok," you sighed, "you two swap partners then."

The blond haired girl went and sat with Matsuri's partner and they began to talk. The group slowly began to continue what they were doing before. After a while some of the pairs finished up their matches and you and Gaara had to switch them with a different pair who were sitting down. About half of them had been switched; surprisingly Matsuri and her partner weren't done yet. You figured Matsuri wasn't a good fighter, so a good partner for the weak brat, even if you felt that Matsuri didn't want to work with her. You went and sat with Chiaki.

"Sooo... Saw you with my teammate this morning." You commented conversationally, sitting next to her as you continued to watch the matches. She blushed an incredibly bright shade of red which you were sure would glow in the dark

"Er... um... yes, we're... uh, friends," she stuttered embarrassed.

"Really now?" you questioned sarcastically, giving her a sly smile before grinning, "I kid, I kid. We can change topic if that'll make you feel less awkward."

She nodded, "Yeah, please."

"Um... You and Matsuri-san get along well?"

"Yeah, I guess. We're not close friends but I think we could be." Chiaki replied shyly.

"So who are your friends? I mean, you weren't really talking to anyone before I came here, so are they sparing at the moment?"

Chiaki sighed, "We had a fall out earlier and they're not talking to me- well to be honest, I fell out with Saki-chan and she's kicked me out of the group and is making everyone else not talk to me."

"Ah! You dared disagree with the ring-leader and were no longer allowed to be part of her flock of sheep." You said in a mocking voice joking around. It made her giggle a bit and you grinned continuing the conversation, "I hate groups like that, always have. I think it's a good thing that you're not in a group like that- you're a nice person. If only the rest of your mates followed you. So who's this... Saki person?"

"The girl with black hair you spoke to earlier that Matsuri-chan's now sparring with," she answered sadly, "The only reason that she's with them is cause they asked her to so they didn't have to be with me."

"Ah, I see. Sulky-brat girl" So Gaara _would_ have been right if it weren't for this mishap, "maybe tomorrow Matsuri-chan'll work with you. I don't think they're her kind of crowd."

Chiaki giggled.

"AHH! Ow!" you looked up to see that Matsuri was down and out.

You stood up to see if she was going to cry uncle or be pinned- but instead of being pinning her opponent to the floor the bratty Saki kept kicking her in the stomach and Matsuri began to cough up blood

"STOP THAT! You've done enough already" You shouted as you rushed over to help Matsuri, Chiaki following close behind. The brat didn't stop and so sand began wrapping itself around her waist and her mouth, pulling her away and shutting her up as she was lifted up off the ground.

"Matsuri-chan are you alright?" you asked bending down to her level, helping her to sit up.

"F-fine." She muttered, wiping the blood away from her mouth.

"What happened?" asked the blond haired girl who was Saki's previous partner. She had just arrived along with a group of other girls who you presumed were her friends, "Oh my God, someone help Saki-chan!"

You looked at Saki who was kicking and screaming in mid air, still suspended by the sand, "She's fine where she is."

"But Saki-chan is-"

"Matsuri-san was coughing up blood for pity's sake- and you're worrying about Saki- the one who done that to her- because she's hanging in mid air by sand? You're unbelievable," You shook your head sighing. "Gaara-kun, let her down please."

Gaara didn't look happy about your decision, but did as you asked. Saki hit the floor with a thud. As there was no longer sand covering her mouth muffling her screams you could hear what she was all upset about.

"HOW DARE SHE, HOW DARE SHE STICK UP FOR THAT COW?!" She screamed, you stared hard at her with an expressionless face as she continued, "we're her friends now; she's part of our group! We took her in when she was all alone and had no one else to work with! And now she betrays us by hanging out with that-!"

"WOAH, CALM DOWN" you shouted at the screeching banshee, holding her back as she re-launched herself at Matsuri who had managed to stand up now thanks to Chiaki, "What the hell is your problem? What gives?"

You dragged her off, asking two of her friends to follow. It took a full 4 more hours to get the whole story completely straight as the girls kept giving you different stories each time you asked them. This is basically what happened:

Chiaki liked this guy very much and only her best mate- Michi- knew about it. Chiaki started to talk to him and has become a close friend with this guy. Saki liked this guy too, but hadn't gotten that close to him and just liked him from a distance. Saki got jealous because they were becoming close friends and rumour has it went on a date. (Michi had told Saki- without knowing that Saki would end up kicking Chiaki out of the group and ordering everyone else to not be her friend). During the sparing session Matsuri and Saki were talking about this. Matsuri sided with Chiaki as Chiaki didn't know that Saki liked this guy and had made the effort to get to know him better- which Saki had never been that bothered about doing and had only just started to make a fuss of him recently. Saki was furious that Matsuri wasn't on her side and began taking out her anger on her. Matsuri was caught off guard by her sudden outburst of rage and couldn't defend herself before Saki started beating her.

You could just about guess who this boy was that they liked.

Sora.

**Yeah~! That's the end.**

**Thanks for reading everyone! And thanks to all those who've added my story to reviews, alerts, favs, ect. You're all great xD**

**Michy-chan**


	11. Problem Solved, Now What?

**Chapter 11: Problem Solved!**

**Thanks once again for all of the favs, reviews and story alerts~! I really do appreciate the support. 3**

**Yeah sorry, it's taking me so long to type up chapters now- I always seem to have... other things to do, being with friends, doing chores and homework, ect.**

**Disclaimed; *still hurting from last attack* yup, I don't own this. ^_^**

You stepped outside the room after you had finished interviewing each of the girls to find out what had happened between them.

"_What a stupid reason to argue. Over a stupid guy- Sora no less!" _You sighed to yourself, walking out of the office area.

It had once been the Kazakage's office but as there was no Kazakage for the time being it was just run by the village council.

_Joy._

It was getting nearer to the afternoon now- you wondered what had happened with the rest of group, Matsuri and Chiaki. Academy would be ending now, if not already finished. Did Gaara take care of them by himself? How did that go? And how was Matsuri-chan, was she badly hurt?

All of these questions bothered you as you walked down the market place street.

"Camika-chan~!" You stopped and spun round to see Temari walking towards you with Kankuro.

"Heya Temari-chan, Kankuro-kun!" you greeted them as they stopped right beside you to chat.

"We heard what happened with your group, man that must suck. Did you get everything sorted out ok?" Kankuro asked casually.

"Yeah, turns out it was all just about some guy" you sighed vaguely not really wanting anyone else to find out who the guy was.

"Really?! All that just about some guy? Damn that girl has problems." Temari sighed shaking her head, "And it really doesn't help that her dad spoils her rotten- he's one of the council members."

"Never mind," You sighed- this really didn't help the view you already had on the village council. "I guess it really can't be helped. How'd Gaara-kun do with the rest of the group? And is Matsuri-san ok?"

"Yes, she's fine and surprisingly things went really well with Gaara and the group- I mean the kids were scare out of their wits of him but everything went good." Temari answered

"That's good, that's good!" you chirped happily, "so where are you guys heading now?"

"We're heading home- just had to hand in some reports. Hey, are you coming with us?" Kankuro inquired.

"Sure, fine I guess. I've not got anything else better to do," you said pondering, "as long as we can stop by some shop that sells get-well-soon cards, then I'm fine."

"Sure, there's one just here..."

* * *

CRASH!

Temari just kicked down the door to their house and strolled in, leaving you and Kankuro standing there stunned. What just happened you ask? She got annoyed at the door. No more questions needed.

_Note to self; don't get on her bad side._

You stepped in and Kankuro followed, picking up the door and propping it up in place so it looked as if it hadn't actually been smashed down. Temari had crashed on the sofa in the living room and was flicking channels. To your surprise Gaara was there too, he looked at you not saying a word as you entered the room.

"What's on the box." You asked as you flopped down on the sofa next to Gaara casually.

"Nothing much really, just some old repeats of stuff we've already seen. Same as usual," Gaara sighed. Wow, he actually replied- he was getting better at this whole social thing.

"Ok.... Hey, Gaara-kun, every go ok at the academy after I left?" you asked turning to speak to him.

"Yeah, everything went ok, I guess..." he replied in response, "err... listen, um... would you..." he blushed slightly as he mumbled something indistinguishable under his breath. His eyes never met yours

"What was that? I didn't hear, you were muttering," You teased, grinned at him.

"Nothing," he said quickly before changing the subject, "did you get things sorted?"

"Hn? What things- oh, those things. Yeah, it got sorted out. It was all just a stupid argument over some guy Chiaki-san & Saki-san both liked and Matsuri-san stuck up for Chiaki-san and that's why that she attacked her. I've spoken to her parents and she's to be kept at home for a week for violent behaviour." you explained to him.

"HEY, TEMARI" Kankuro yelled from the kitchen, "Where's all the food gone, I'm starving?"

"I only went shopping the other day, you must have eaten it all dumbass" Temari called back.

"Ah... I guess that means takeaway again then." Kankuro said with a sigh, but you could hear in his voice a hint of happiness. And who wouldn't be happy? Takeaways are always good  .

"I can go get some," you said getting up from your seat, "I know a good place, my aunt and I ordered from there the other day- it was delicious!"

"But Cami-chan, you're the guest-" Temari started but you interrupted her.

"And I've been stuck inside sorting out some boring childish argument for most of the day and I really need to stretch my legs. I really don't mind going and getting food, honestly."

"I'll go with you." Gaara said getting up from the sofa too and stood next to you.

You looked back at Temari who was grinning for some strange reason. Kankuro leaned his head out of the window/gap-in-the-wall from the kitchen and began to say something but Temari jumped up and slapped a hand across his mouth to stop him from speaking.

"That's fine then, great!" She said cheerily, making you awfully suspicious, "so it's decided; Cami-chan and Gaara-kun are going out to get food~!"

"Yeah, ok. I guess we've better get going- I don't know what time it closes" you said cautiously, making your way to the front door.

"Ok, have fun!" Temari called after you.

"Have fun?" you repeated confused as you stepped outside the front door, Gaara closing the door up behind you using his sand, "What the hell was that supposed to mean?"

"hn." Gaara mumbled, avoiding your gaze and slightly pink in the checks you could have sworn.

"So... what did you say earlier?" you asked casually as you walked down the street- hopefully towards the market place.

"Hn? What?" Gaara replied confused.

"Earlier, when we got in you mumbled something under your breath that I couldn't quite hear and when I asked you what it was you switched subject. What were you trying to say? Come on, tell me!" you pestered him teasingly.

"I-it doesn't matter. Are you sure you know where you're going?" Gaara asked.

"As a matter of fact... no, not a clue- but quit changing the subject! Yes it does matter."

"Right now we're heading off to the `red light` district of this village- I doubt the takeaway place _you're_ looking for is over _that_ way."

Your face went bright red._ Oops!_

"Uhhh...Ok, so which way's the market??" you asked bashfully.

"That way." Gaara said pointing down the road that a moment ago you were thinking of going down, "What's the name?"

"Um... I think it was.... The Golden Cheif?"

"Chinese food?"

"Yeah, what does someone not like Chinese?" you asked worried.

"No, it's not that. I was just making sure if I knew the place, that's all. It's just on the out skirts of the market, right?"

"Yeah, that's right... I think" you said thoughtfully as Gaara gave you a look, "I'm pretty sure- don't worry!"

"I won't, _I_ don't get lost."

You glared at him from the corner of your eye as the two of you carried on strolling at a casual pace to the market, side by side. He looked back at you blankly. You stopped giving him the evil eye and laughed.

"What's so funny?" he asked confused.

"Nothing... It's just..." you could barely suppress your giggles as you struggled to give a reply, "you just looked kinda... innocent. It's just funny that you looked almost like a kid."

He looked at you with a puzzled expression- making you laugh all the more.

"Look, let's just get that takeaway already- I'm starving! Oh yeah, and you still haven't answered my question- What did you say earlier?!"

**Yeah... i aint so good at updating regularly... I really fail at it D':**

**Hope you enjoy~! Don't expect there to be an update soon though!!!**

**Michy-chan**


	12. Food, food, FOOD!

**Chapter 12: Give us The Answer.**

**The answer is 42! But what was the question? O_o**

**Anyone who can give me the correct ****answer ****question will have their name mentioned on the next chapter update~~!**

**I just felt like doing this for fun... and to see how many people actually share a brain with me (or have the same kind of family as me who watch the same kind of stuff).**

**I'm so so so SOO sorry, I'm really bad for updating this story (and doing work in general) But I do have a very good reason this time! My sister's laptop that I usually write the story on doesn't like me ONE BIT! It always freezes and stuff but for ages the internet on my account doesn't work. It only works on one of my sisters' account. I've had to get a memory stick thingy and now I'm working on my stories on the other computer :D Plus I've got my GCSEs this year and I'm even doing an AS in Maths early! Wish me luck please :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters... for the obvious reason that I'm kind of a perv and let's see... *has pervy thoughts... drools on keyboard* Ah nuuues~! Teh Laptop :O**

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* * *

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"And in the end, you never did tell me what you said..."

"Hn," was the only reply you got from your red-headed friend as you walked back from the takeaway shop- your arms filled with bags of Chinese takeaway.

"Ah, well... At least Auntie was kind enough to let me stay the night- I really wasn't expecting that!" you sighed in thoughtful amazement.

"Hn," he repeated in response, staring off into the distance with a far-off expression on his face.

"Are you ok?" you asked Gaara who suddenly snapped back into reality, "You're sort of spacing out a bit."

"It's nothing, don't worry about it," Gaara muttered monotonously, lowering his voice even more to just a whisper "just listen; don't panic, don't turn around, don't make any sudden, unexpected movements. We're being followed."

Your heart raced and a look of panic momentarily darted across you face as you tried to remain calm. You (mentally) reached out to sense the other person's chakra as you carried on walking.

"Yeah, I can sense them," you whispered back to Gaara, "there are three of them- they don't seem to be ninja. What should we do?"

"Walk into the ally, wait for them to follow and surprise attack them"

You nodded in agreement and the two of you slunk off into the nearest ally- which was a dead end. Your heart was pounding so much it filled your head. You barely noticed when Gaara disappeared probably onto the roof-top or something to jump the people following you. You were fairly certain that this was the case, but still- it didn't matter how many times in your head you muttered it to yourself you still felt so uneasy about being alone. When you stopped and stared at the dead-end sand wall with a dull expression on your face; inside your heart raced.

_Show _No_ Fear._

"HEY, Chick! Where you going?" one of the three who were fallowing you called out.

"_They've taken the bait..."_ You thought, smirking to yourself. You couldn't sense Gaara, but it's not as if it mattered- you could handle it perfectly fine yourself.

"OI, missy" the same guy called out again, still not getting a reply.

"Think she's deaf?" the second guy asked the first slightly puzzled.

"No, I can hear you," you replied, finally turning to look at them, "why are you following me, what do you want?"

"Che! Rude..." the second guy muttered to his mate. He had silver hair and was fairly skinny, his to friends who stood either side of his were of a more stocky build- one of them very, err... "Rotund" like Choji and the other just pure muscle and very tanned.

"Awww, don't be like that babe" the first guy (who was the tan, muscled one) cooed, "We just want to talk. Say, where's your friend gone, the one with the red hair?"

"Dunno, why's it matter?"

"Leave it Leon, she's just a mouthy brat," The silver haired guy growled, "Let's just do what we were gonna do- "

"Take the money and go," the chubby one said in an unintelligent way. Clearly _he_ wasn't the brains of this trio.

"Fine, fine! Too young for me anyways," 'Leon' sighed, "sorry `bout this, missy"

They began to walk towards you; you heart began to pound loudly again- which annoyed you. Why'd it have to be so loud? And while you asking yourself mental questions, where was- ?

"And I'm sorry I'm going to have to stop you"

It was Gaara sitting on the roof top just as you knew he would, with the same monotonous expression on his face, just as you knew he would. He smirked, disappearing in a puff of…err… sand before re-appearing in front of you. The trio stood there in utter shock, not believing for a minute who was standing between them and you.

Half-asked question answered.

"Heh, you took your time getting your arse down here!" you sarcastically complained grinning.

"Sorry, just wanted to make it dramatic" Gaara replied in the same tone, "what, you got worried I wouldn't come."

"No, I so could take care of these guys myself" you retorted, half joking, before noticing that something was missing, "where'd you put our food?"

"I put it somewhere out of the way. It's safe, don't worry" he then turned to the 'bad guys', "I'd rather get home and eat then be bothered with you. Get out of here or else."

The three of them, with panic stricken faces, made a run for it- stumbling over their own feet as the legged it out of the ally.

* * *

**Ahh... this is probably really kinda... shorted than usual. But hey, it's better than nothing! I Have been meaning to update for months but i keep getting threatening messages from fanfic people O_O LOOL**

**Love you guys loads! Thanks for all your support! Xxxx **


	13. Good Night Sleepover

**OKAII! NEXT CHAPTERRRR! Thanks for reading this far folks!**

**Forgive me- I'm still using exams as an excuse for late updates… If you don't get what's going on, I suggest re-reading a few chapters to refresh your memories (it's what I did xD). But at least I got this chapter done quickly ... or quicker than usual...**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto… hmm… maybe if I saved up enough money… ;p**

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You got back to their house just before it got dark. The sun glowed crimson red in the evening sky as you slowly made your way back down the dusty road. You'd pretty much given up on getting an answer out of Gaara. It was a shame really, that he hadn't fully opened up to you yet but what did you expect? You'd only known him for a few days now really it was amazing how much you'd opened up to each other in that short amount of time. You closed the door behind you as Gaara silently hung the keys up on a peg by the door. They still didn't work, so Gaara had had to use his sand to let the two of you inside.

"Hey, what took you guys so long? I'm starving!" Kankuro yelled from the living room as you strode in.

"Sorry, door wouldn't open properly..." you sighed as you put the bags down on the coffee table which Kankuro quickly dived into.

"And we almost got mugged" Gaara added

"WHAT?" Kankuro almost dropped the food in his hands on hearing this.

"It's no big deal, seriously. They just followed us for a bit until we told them to go away" you summarised casually. Kankuro and Temari still sat there mouths wide open staring at you in utter disbelief "it was nothing!"

You slumped down on the sofa, leaned over towards the food and grabbed something randomly from a bag to eat. Gaara sat down next to you. Temari and Kankuro shrugged it off and carried on digging in to the meal.

"It might be nothing to you, but it doesn't happen to the rest of us here on a regular basis" he murmured sarcastically to you so that no one else could hear.

"Ah, I was wondering about that. I don't usually end up getting into trouble either; it's just that recently..." you trailed off quietly

"hn." He replied, taking a bite into something. You munched down on whatever was in your hand

"HAAAAH!" you gasped in supprise, covering your mouth. The three siblings all stared at you, giving you an odd look "It's spicey." You explained, getting up to get a glass of milk or water- anything to drown the taste out from your mouth.

"You don't like spice?" Gaara questioned, looking at you in the blank way he usually did when he was slightly puzzled by you.

"No, I really, REALLY don't." You replied, desperately searching throughout the kitchen for anything to cool your tongue with.

You managed to find a clean cup and the cold water tap somewhere in the messy obis of their kitchen. You quickly filled the cup to the brim and downed it in own go. You filled yourself one more cupful to sip at while eating the rest of your (hopefully not spicy) meal.

You spent the rest of your evening chatting; telling stories about past missions, your old friends from Konoha and your past lives; playing games on the Xbox. Surprisingly, you were quite good at for someone who had never played before- although Kankuro showed no mercy you beat him a couple of times and usually won against Gaara. Strangely enough he was supposed to be the better player. After you had won the 4th game in a row against Gaara, Kankuro began to get agitated.

"You're just letting her win!" he howled from across the room as you did your victory dance.

"No I'm not"

"Yes you are. How come you never go easy on me?"

"Because it's your game; you're supposed to be good at it"

"Lighten up Kankuro-kun" you chirped sitting yourself back downin your seat, "just 'cause I'm new at this yet I still beat you twice" you said teasingly.

"Out of 10 games!" He yelled back. Gaara sent him a death glare which silenced him and made you laugh.

"Alright, break it up!" Temari said jokingly, ruffling Kankuro's hair, "it's getting late and you have missions you need to do tomorrow. We need to start thinking about sleeping arrangements."

"Oh? Do you?" you asked puzzled

"Only Gaara- it's a special one. A 'toughie'" Temari explained. You could've sworn you saw Gaara's cheeks turn slightly pink again, but then again it could just be your mind playing tricks on you as you were a bit tired.

You nodded, understanding what she meant completely. Back in the mist village, Haruki used to get those kinds of missions all the time. They consisted of special, A-rank and S-rank tasks that were suited for only the elite. Or a jinjuriki.

"So as I was saying," Temari continued, "sleeping arrangements."

"What about them?" Kankuro asked lazily

"Where's Cami-chan going to sleep tonight?"

"She's sleeping over?"

"Well DUH! It's 3 in the morning now, obviously she can't just walk home-"

"What with your record of getting lost or mugged" Gaara joined in, joking again about earlier events. You sent him a death glare before grinning at him.

"- and besides this IS what we had planned, I've already told you. What weren't you listening?" Temari continued, taking no notice of Gaara's input.

"errr..." Kankuro though for a minute, his eyes rolling slightly upwards, backtracking, "I guess not, no. I tend to block things out when you start nattering"

You could see Temari was sorely tempted to murder him right there and then, only just managing to keep herself restrained.

"We'll sleep where we usually do" kankuro continued, failing to see the rage building up in his sister, "and Camika-chan can sleep on the sofa. Simple"

"What? You want to stick our guest on the SOFA?" Temari fumed

"It's ok, I don't mind where I sleep" you quickly intervened, worrying for Kankuro's life, "I'm seriously not fussed."

"You could take my bed," Gaara suggested, "I don't sleep so I don't even know why I have one. I don't mind if she uses it for tonight. I'll stay in the living room, or something."

"So it's settled then," Temari calmed down "Camika will have Gaara's room and Gaara will slee- uuhhh, do whatever, wherever."

So it was decided. You did try to give up the bed feeling guilty about steeling his room for the night but he insisted that it was fine.

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***later that night/early morning hours***

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You crawled into bed exhausted from that day's (or really yesterday's) work. Despite being in the middle of the desert the night was very cool, calm and peaceful. You tugged the thin blanket right up to your chin like you normally did and sighed. Even though you were completely knackered it was impossible for you to sleep, your brain wouldn't switch off. You tossed and turned for a bit unable to completely relax. Feeling a familiar presence enter the room you sat up blinking until your vision got clearer and more used to the dark. You saw a silhouette stood by the door.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you" Gaara spoke softly, turning away, about to step back out.

"No, it's ok. I couldn't sleep anyways. Please stay" you whispered, only just loud enough for him to hear. He stopped and turned back to face you again, "come here" you yawned.

Silently he made his way over and sat next to you on the bed.

"Why can't you sleep?" he asked quietly

"I don't know. I'm tired, but I just can't get myself to drift off... I guess I'm just like that when it comes to sleeping in a new bed; it's taken me ages to get used to my bed at my aunt's house." You babbled sleepily, "Lie next to me" you moved over to make room for him.

He hesitated for a moment before slipping in between the sheets next to you. You snuggled up close to him, resting your head on his chest as he put his hands behind his head. You breathed him in. It was the same as the other night when you were last together like this. Sleep began to ooze over you, but now that you were alone with Gaara again there were so many things you wanted to talk with him about, so many questions you had to ask.

"Hey, Gaara-kun, how did you meet my brother?" you asked, fighting the urge to sleep, "and how did he help you? Help you with what?" these were just a few of the questions that had been bothering you.

"Hm..? Umm... I guess you could say it's personal really..." Gaara sighed.

"Hm..." you pondered for a moment, "well if you tell me all about your past, I'll tell you all about mine. It'll probably be a bit like déjà vu really"

"Why'd you say that?"

"Because from what I've heard around town our's are very similar. My past, Naruto's and yours."

"Tell me yours first"

"Alright then..." you began.

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**And that's all for this chapter :)**

**It's a bit longer than the last one. Hehe 3 Hope you're all enjoying (I'm kinda worrying if anyone reads these things anymore- it's been like... a year since I posted chapter 11)**

**Please review/comment/ etc! (Unless you're my little sister; I already told you not to!) Thanks a bunch : 3**

**Michy-chan xxx**


	14. My Story

**Chapter 14!**

**Hope you're all enjoying my story so far. I just notice though, the chapters are quite short :/**

**I'll try to make them longer in the future**

**Thanks for reading so far and also for any reviews, adds to story alert or anything similar :) much appreciated. Please feel free to review some more- I would like to know what you all think of this so far and also, **how many people** ARE** actually still reading this?** Cause although I know you got the thingy history stuff but I don't know what hits are and for some reason there's more hits than visitors and it's just all too confusing and doesn't actually show who's enjoying it and who's just accidently clicked on the page/ though, wow this is shit...**

**Disclaimer: I swear these things are pointless as you already know I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. This is a fan-fiction (note the site's name) :S**

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((**AN**: for those of you who don't know what's going on: You're sleeping over at Gaara's house in Gaara's room but you couldn't actually sleep. Gaara comes in and you get him to sit down and question him about his past but before he agrees to tell you his he wants you to tell him yours...))

You took a deep breath before you began "I used live in the mist village with my guardian Yoriwa, since I was a little baby. He was meant to be my and Naruto's Godfather. However seeming as Naruto was the leaf's jinjuriki he couldn't leave so we were separated at birth. On the way to the village I was abducted by this strange organisation. No one really knows how I managed to get back... I think the theory was that Yoriwa was part of that organisation, but a couple of days later I apparently ended up on his doorstep in just fine condition. The medics examined me and the only new thing they found a seal. "

"I'm not quite sure what it was that was sealed inside me, I was never told. I only briefly overheard from the leaf village council when I moved to Konoha that it was... umm... well; it's what gives me those special abilities that Suna's council wanted me to use. Because of the mysterious abduction, the fact I was an orphan and an outsider to the village I struggled to make friends. To be honest, in the mist village I only had one friend Haruki. He's the mist's jinjuriki- the sanbi. Unfortunately, because of those special abilities well... an accident happened. I was about 7 years old, almost 8 and I had no clue that I had anything sealed anywhere or any special talents but this one time we were getting bullied more harsh than usual. I lost my temper and suddenly..."

Tears started to swell up in your eyes. Not good. Telling an emotional story when you were very tired meant that you emotions had gone haywire. There was no controlling it, the tears spilled out and rolled down your cheeks. Gaara sat there as quiet as ever, not quite knowing what to do you figured. Slowly he put his arms around you and held you tightly. You tired to calm yourself down before continuing.

"... When I lost my temper... I don't exactly remember what I did, but I caused the Sanbi to take control over Haruki. I made it hurt the people who were being mean to us. I didn't mean to. I didn't really want that to happen. Haruki hated me for it. He ran away from the village that afternoon, all because of me. And afterwards Yoriwa hated me too! No...He'd hated me all along; he just started to show it then. He began to beat me. For a week he continuously beat me, until one day he got out a knife. He was going to kill me, but then some ANBU members came and took me away. Some neighbours had reported odd sounds coming from the house so they had come to check things out and thankfully intervened before he really got me. That's when they decided to take me to konoha. It had always been disputed whether or not it was a good idea splitting me and Naruto up from birth so that was that. I spent a few days in hospital recovering and then was shipped off to konoha." You had managed to calm yourself down completely to complete the story without another outburst,

"I spent a few days at an orphanage because it took a while for them to find my closest living relative- Naruto which wasn't so bad. Our Iruka-sensei picked me up from the hokage's office and introduced us. I had overheard from some of the people speaking down at the office that we were twins and that I had something sealed inside of me that was the cause of that power. After that I shared in Naruto's sufferings. I swore to myself to never be that weak again as to lose control ever again. I graduated early from the academy, became a chunin, was told that they'd found an aunt of ours and I kinda had to move 'cause of expenses and such and well, here I am" you finished.

Gaara sat there, quietly pondering on what you'd just said. Feeling awkward because of the silence you decided so to fill it.

"When Naruto becomes Hokage I'm going to be an ANBU member and help him on all his cool missions... or something like that" you let out a yawn as you finished the sentence.

"hn..." Gaara responded calmly, "you should get some rest, you seem really tired."

"I don't wanna... I still got loads of questions-"

"And so do I, just one more before we rest."

"hmmm? What's that?"

"When the accident happened and you lost your temper... did anyone die?"

"_What an odd question to ask..._" you thought sleepily "No, only a few people got hurt, but quite badly. They got to the hospital in time though."

"That's good" Gaara seemed to let out a sigh of relief, "I'm sorry for bringing that up again"

"It's kay" you slurred sleepily, as you began to be defeated in the losing battle against slumber, "goodnight"

"Goodnight," he whispered back. You barely noticed the feel of his lips brushing gently across you forehead, "Sleep well, Camika-chan"

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_***Dreaming***_

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"_Why'd you make me do that?" He yelled. _

_You tried to speak, but your lungs failed you. _

"_Get away from me!" He yelled, running away._

_You tired to follow, but your legs failed you._

_He ran. Further and further away down the street. _

"_Haruki!" you tired to scream out to him, but nothing except silent whispers came out._

_He stopped in his tracks and stared at the ground in front of him. Did he hear you? Surely not, he was so far away and it was only a whimper that escaped your mouth. _

"_Cami-chan... I thought i could trust you" he spoke, but not only in his own voice- two other voices along with it. Two other people that you could just as easily betray._

_Naruto and Gaara stood either side of Haruki watching you with cold and blank faces, not a spark of emotion anywhere to be seen._

_You knelt to the ground as misery overtook your entire body creeping upwards from the soles of your feet to your conscience. It was going to happen. It was going to take over. It was unstoppable._

_Someone put their hand on your shoulder, "Shhhh... it's ok"_

_You turned and looked up, but your eyes were blurry from tears. They pulled you into a tight, reassuring embrace. _

"_Don't be afraid, I'm here for you." His voice was as gentle and soothing as cotton soft clouds. Hearing him speak you were surround by liquid happiness. All despair, anger and negativity disappeared from existence in his presence. You returned the hug, clinging to him as if he were your last tread of hope. You extended one arm out so that you could run your fingers through his soft, silky hair. You could see now that it was vibrant crimson red. His face quite pale, with minty-coloured orbs surrounded by dark circles, making the brightness of it all stand out even more. You smiled, closing your eyes and your nightmare lapsed into a sweet and dreamless sleep._

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You woke up the next morning as the sun's rays slipped through the curtains and danced around the ceiling and walls. The room was cool as the curtains were closed and the windows open to let a refreshing breeze flow in. You sat up, alone in the bed and stretched the morning's drizzly feeling out of you before trying to wake up your eyesight and taking a look around the room. Last night you had felt too tired to think about doing so and even if you did you'd have felt rude. The curtains were a deep crimson red and made of a heavy material like velvet or something similar so it was hard for light to pass though. The carpet and the bed covers were the same colour and the walls were creamy white. In the corner near the bed (on the window's side) was a bookshelf, crammed full of ninja textbooks and odd trinkets from many different places. On the highest shelf you spotted and old, raggedy stuffed teddy bear. You crawled out of bed to have a closer look, but you found you couldn't quite reach the top shelf.

You glanced around the room a second time. By the wall opposite the bed was a desk with some papers and a little lamp on it, a chair and. By the wall opposite the window was the door out to the corridor, a CD rack with a stereo next to it, plus 2 black beanbags that sat in front of it. You grabbed the chair by the desk and placed it in front of the shelves. Climbing on top of the chair you were now able to reach the top shelf. You gently rescued the old toy from its tower prison and took a good look at it. Unlike most of the other objects on that high shelf, this one wasn't dusty. Considering how old it was, it had been kept in very good condition. You took a look at the tab and in faded writing was the name "Gaara". Smiling, you placed the treasured item back in its place and delicately took the next nearest object. It was a dusty, ancient and broken-glass picture frame. From under the dust you could see 2 figures. One, a young boy with red hair, holding what seemed to be the teddy bear similar to the one you'd just picked up only newer. The other was a man? Woman? With shoulder length sandy hair wearing an apron and was smiling- arm on the younger's shoulder. You gently blew the dust off of the picture. The boy was, just as you'd expected, a young Gaara, the only difference being that back then he didn't have the "love" kanji symbol on his forhead. The person next to him, more obviously a man now, although smiling looked awkward; as if he didn't really want to be there. His face and hair colour looked kind of similar to Temari's. Maybe this was their dad? More likely their uncle as you remembered Temari saying that their dad was once the Kazakage and you doubted that the Kazakage would be caught dead or alive wearing an apron. The picture had been taken in a nursery- a room of a similar shape and size to this one, only different colours. And then it struck you.

Gaara hadn't told you about his past like he'd promised. Putting everything back where it was you finished you're expedition and got washed and dressed in some new clothes you'd packed with you in your ninja case (don't ask how it fitted in there- you had ways of making stuff fit xD). You jogged down the stairs before bounding happily into the kitchen, despite the fatigue you suffered from the late night you just had. Temari and Kankuro were already there, serving themselves up their breakfasts

"Mornin' all," you greeted then.

"Morning" they simultaneously replied sluggishly, half dead. You got yourself your own breakfast as Temari, in a zombie trance, passed you the milk and cereal.

"So where's Gaara?" you asked, not feeling his presence anywhere nearby.

"Left early hours this morning for his mission" Temari replied dully

"Oh..." _damn it he completely escaped telling me about his past! I'll have to hunt him down later!_ "So what was his mission anyways? What's he gotta do?" you continued casually, before beginning to munch down on your cereal.

"Top secret stuff," _Damn it again! _"He shouldn't be back for at least a week, but he usually finishes his missions early," Kankuro answered this time. He the way he muttered and half slurred his words made it almost sound as if he were sleep-talking.

"ah… okay" you tired to hide the disappointment in your voice, but not very convincingly. Thankfully though, they were too tired to care or notice. After finishing your breakfast and getting Temari and Kankuro to wake up properly, the three of you left the house.

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**And CUUUUUUUUUUTTTTT! :D**

**Hopefully that's a bit more of the right kinda size for ya! Please remember to REVIEW! !**

**Thanks for reading =3**

**Michy-chan**


	15. Bad Day Escape

**Chapter 15 **

**WOW 15 CHAPTERS :0 this fanfic is getting long ! I'm on a roll here (like Choji) xD**

**Thanks for all your support so far you guys, thanks for your reviews and story alerts etc. :D**

**Oh! There's a tiny bit of bad language in this chap I think so yeahh… Just like to warn ya :) It's nothing too evil!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

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The night was still and cold. The air was fresh and crisp. You had your bedroom window as wide open as possible to let it all in, in an attempt to relax you. It wasn't working.

Today had been, by far, one of the worst days EVER! Exhausted and slightly cranky from having a late night and none of your questions answered, you had left for work only to find things got worse. Much worse. First of all, the girls in your academy group were being bitchy and acting like right cows because of the confusion and anger from yesterday's events. Most of them wouldn't listen to you; they weren't cooperative and just stood around sulking. Secondly, the boys were being perverts- just as Temari had warned you- but you were too busy trying to get them all to do some work and too tired to figuring out who was doing what. Dealing with a large group of teens on your own wasn't easy and it seriously didn't help that today- of all days- they decided to be difficult.

After lunch you snapped. You only had so much patience with idiots- despite living with one for the past 6 years but after being sworn at AND perved on simultaneously you had had enough.

"THAT's IT! 100 laps round this area NOW" you shouted from the top of your lungs, giving them all THE most evil glare you could muster, "And after that 200 sit ups, 200 push ups and, 200 leg raises."

The training from hell.

Rock Lee's taijutsu training regime.

Of course- they couldn't actually manage to do this, so you ignored it when they cut corners or skipped 100 or so push ups, but it kept them busy to say the least until the end of academy hours. You said bye to your mates and left for home. Once there you aunt pestered you with a never ending stream of weird questions, until you told her you were exhausted, you weren't hungry and you were going straight to bed. All 3 were pretty much lies. Despite being tired, you felt too angry now to sleep; you were starving hungry as you'd skipped lunch due to lack of money; and last but not least you had no desire of going straight to bed. You sat at your desk with your music blaring loudly in your ears and you pencil in your hand ready to draw. Sadly however, not even this could calm your tempest rage. You had no idea what to draw- today had drained you of all positive emotion and sucked the life out of your imagination. When you did figure out what to sketch, you continually managed to stab holes though the paper with frustrated you further.

And just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, they did.

You received a letter from the village council telling you to come to a meeting that was in…

You quickly glanced at your alarm clock by your bedside.

… 10 minutes.

After you'd received the letter you desperately tried calming yourself. There was no way you could let yourself fully loose your temper at the council. You may not have liked them but they were still in charge.

You paced up, down and across your room breathing deeply slowly bringing yourself to a more calm and un-frustrated state of mind. You decided now was a good time to set off for the meeting. You packed your ninja gear in your back pack, checked that your Uzumaki necklace Naruto gave you was still there, took one more deep breath to brace yourself before stepping out.

"I've gotta go to a meeting- council said so." You briefly explained to your aunt as you made your way out to the front door.

"Oh... ok," you aunt had barely had enough time to reply before you shut the door behind you.

You didn't mean to be rude or anything but you didn't want the endless stream or dumb questions to be fired at you plus you were probably going to be late as it was. Somehow you managed to get the Council office building with no time to spare. You were ushered into a big, circular room with the door behind you , a desk with 3 people- council members- sat behind it and was pretty much plain and empty otherwise.

"Uzumaki Camika," the man in the middle greeted you calmly. You bowed politely, and then he started, "we have a mission for you."

"As you probably already know, Subaku no Gaara is currently on a mission. He left early this morning even though he was _supposed_ to leave last night…." the woman who sat on his left continued, glaring at you for the last part, "His mission took him to the South of the river Country to investigate strange happenings there. Unfortunately he has reported back the he can't quite do it alone and has requested back up. You are to assist him with his mission, as you are the most well-suited candidate for the job. You're to make your way to a town called Katsu where you'll meet up with him and be given the necessary information for completing the mission"

As she spoke the 3rd person handed to you a map of the town and where it was. On it was a highlighted patch the read 'town hall and memorial statue'. You figure that this was where you'd be meeting up with him.

"Get some rest tonight and set off in the morning at 3am. We'll notify your team that you'll be away and unable to teach at the academy." The middle guy finished off.

"Um... well actually, I wouldn't mind leaving this afternoon," you said calmly, "I mean, the desert is very hot during the day so I'll find it easier to travel quickly during the night. I can just get what I need and leave as soon as I'm ready if that's fine with you."

Plus there was no way you were going to get any rest tonight and getting out of the village and exercising for a bit was exactly what you needed.

"That's fine I guess" the middle said, glancing at the other two shrugging, "leave when you're ready."

"Thank you" you replied before bowing and leaving.

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With your back pack full of necessities such as food, tools plus a small medi-kit and armed with your small duo katana swords you took one final look back at the village before turning and leaving. It was much colder than you'd expect at night in the middle of the desert. You didn't care that the cold stung your cheeks or that the wind whipped and clawed at your arms and clothes as you ran in the direction of Katsu. You felt free, relieved, alive!

You reached the end of the desert by dawn. Stepping into the forest felt as if you had cross the border between 2 different worlds- the way in which the sand stopped and the forest begun just as sudden seemed odd. You soon lost sight of the sun again as you plunged deeper into the thick tangle of branches and leaves. It had been over a day ago since you had last got some decent rest and finally the fatigue was settling in. You stopped to rest against a huge oak tree and soon you were no longer aware of the world around you.

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_***Dreaming***_

_The demon was on a rampaged again._

_It shook the earth and crushed the forest and anything else around and underneath it, showing no mercy in the process. Anger, hatred and agony were the only feelings flowing through it. Fuelled with such passionate fury, nothing that stood in its path of wrath survived. It destroyed their crops and crushed their homes, but no one dared try stopping the beast for fear that they'd end up like everything else around it. No one except this one man._

_He became eye level with the ignoramus monster by summoning an equally big toad and standing on its head._

_The fox-beast hissed and snarled at the village hero._

_The show down had begun._

_Only the beast wasn't a fox- it was a turtle with 3 tails._

_And the hero was no longer blond and standing tall on top of a toad- he had flaming red hair and stood by himself, floating in midair surrounded by lots of sand…_

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**AAAHHH! It took me so long to type all this out so I'm just gonna post it all now quickly xD**

**You'll see Gaara again next chapter no worries! **

**Much lov, please review, etc, let me know what you think : )**

**Michy-chan xx**


	16. A town called Katsu

**Chapter 16**

**Wooooooow…. I know I said this last time but, OMG so many chaptersss! Hehe~!**

**Haaa! It only took me a week to update :D I'm getting better at this : 3**

**Oh yesss and now we get to see Gaara- just as promised :D I hope you enjoy! This chapters gonna be a long(er) one!**

**Disclaimer- Same as beforrrrrrr : )**

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_((recap: last time you had an odd dream about tailed beasts and heroes))_

You work up with a start gasping. Did you really just dream that…?

Stretching as you sat up, your body felt stiff from sleeping in such an awkward position. It took a few minutes for you to unscramble your brain and figure out what it was you were doing there. You got a small snack for breakfast out of your back pack and set out again for Katsu town (you had to climb the nearest tall tree to check which direction it was because of your *_wonderful*_ ability to get lost so easily). It was still just morning- about 10 o'clock once you reached the town. Made of mostly wood and stone it was a picturesque place- more of a village than a small town. In the village's fairly crowded centre you found the memorial statue and the "town hall". The statue memorial was made of bronze and of a man holding his sword heroically in the air staring up to the sky. Carved into the rock below it was inscribed some brave words that couldn't be read due to how badly whether-worn they were.

Someone was watching you. Well, to be honest a lot of people were looking at you. You were wearing bright yellow, had bright red and were a complete stranger here, of course the locals were going to stare, but it wasn't them you were talking about. You could sense the familiar presence nearby and he was staring right at you.

You looked up at the spire on the town hall. At the top was a huge clock the told the time and had a big bell in clear view. You could roughly make out the silhouette standing right at the top in the bell chamber. It was going to be difficult getting up there without drawing loads of attention to yourself and you'd much rather be as discreet as possible until you knew what the mission was going to be like. You glared at the figure until it made its move and disappeared out of sight. You walked towards a quiet corner of the street where there was an ally way and leant against the wall outside it.

"So you're the one they sent to help?" Gaara asked casually, appearing in a puff of sand behind you in the ally so as not to make a scene/ become noticed.

"Yup, although they didn't really tell me what we're supposed to be doing. They said you'd fill me in," you smiled cheerfully at him, before suddenly remembering something "OH YEAH! You still need to tell me about your past. You didn't think I'd forget, did you?"

The two of you begun walking through the town/village centre, past lots of different and colourful shops selling junk souvenirs, clothes and sweeties

Gaara sighed and averted his gaze from you to his feet, "No I didn't. I'm sorry I had to leave in such a hurry-."

"Oh I know about that! Apparently you were supposed to leave the afternoon before. I think that _some people_ blame ME for that! Certainly one of the council-ladies do" You laughed remembering the evil look she gave you.

"oh..." Gaara gave a vague reply.

"No worries, we can talk about it whenever you're ready," you felt bad for making Gaara feel guilty, not meaning to do that.

You put your hands in your pockets casually as you walked on in an awkward silence. As you hadn't had much to eat over the past 24 hours you felt as if your stomach was going to eat itself if you didn't stop for lunch soon.

_Errrrggh! But first I HAVE to kill this silence, there was no way I'm asking Gaara out for a meal with this sort of mood and- wait? Did I just think about going out for a meal with Gaara? As in, a DATE? Nooooooooooooooo way... I mean sure I wouldn't mind, I guess... AAHHH! That doesn't matter at the moment- how do I break this silence? What should I-?_

*GUUUUUUURRRRRRGGGLLEEEE, RUUUMMMBBBLLEEEEE, GLUUURRRRRGGG!*

"Was that your stomach?" Gaara asked, looking at you confused.

_Well at least it broke the silence..._ "ahahaha... umm, yeah unfortunately" you answered sheepishly, rubbing you tummy and blushing deeply whilst trying to act casual.

"Hn... I know a good place here to eat, my treat." Gaara turned away, his mouth twitched upwards into a slight smile amused at your embarrassment, "We can talk there too- it's pretty quiet."

You nodded, able to feel your cheeks flush the same colour as your hair.

He took your hand which caught you by surprise and led you through the streets to a small hut situated in a quieter corner of the village/town. Once inside Gaara asked for a table for two and you both followed the blond haired waitress to a secluded table that sat near the murky window. You both took your seats and she gave you your menus. You looked at it briefly before picking two random things off the list that you thought you might like while Gaara just immediately made his order, already knowing what he wanted. Scanning the restaurant scenery, it all felt strangely dream-like. The restaurant was almost empty- Gaara wasn't kidding when he said it was quiet- and the little amount of people who were there kept themselves to themselves or whispered their own quiet conversations in groups no larger than two or three. No on looked or stared at you much here, which they certainly did in Suna every time you'd been out with him before. You'd never really noticed that much and had never let it bother you before now. But in comparison to this outing- it was painfully obvious. And Gaara just sat there as if nothing was different from usual. Currently he was staring out the window, off on his own trail of thoughts. His face was covered in a calm and peaceful veil- it made you wonder what he was thinking about. And there was one more thing that made this all feel like you were just imagining things...

"You know," Gaara snapped back out of his daydream and focused on you as your soft words penetrated the silence between the two of you, "this is kind of like... a date."

It felt awkward saying this out loud but at the same time it was a relief to have those words out in the open and off your chest. Gaara stared at you in shock- you slightly regretted saying it but then he spoke:

"Well, if that's what you want it to be then that's fine with me. I had been meaning to ask you out on one anyways"

You felt yourself turn deep red all over again as your heart somersaulted inside you. No way in a million years could you have thought that that was the response you were going to get and it thrilled you.

"R-really? You sure?" you asked, stuttering shocked and pinching yourself under the table to made sure you weren't seriously imagining things. Gaara nodded.

At that moment the waitress came back with your food and drink. You'd ordered dangos and apple tea. You took a sip of the scolding hot liquid before re-arranging the catastrophic confusion that was your thoughts.

"Okay, so it's a date," you heart pounded in your chest as you felt the words slip out of your mouth sounding almost casual despite your inner feelings. Taking another sip of the tea- blowing at it first to cool it- you decided to get a grip and get some answers. "So tell me, your past...?"

"Right, I know..." Gaara sighed taking a sip of his drink, preparing what he was going to say in his head before looking you in the eyes "Tell me... what do you know about me already?"

You pondered for a minute, munching on a dango before listing what you knew, "Well, I know that you're the Sand's jinjuriki and like me and Naruto you were treated as a monster so our pasts are quite similar. I know you met my brother during the chunin exam and he helped you with something... and that's about it that's really relevant"

"Hmm..." Gaara pause for thought, swishing his cup about to stir it for a bit and then began his speech, "Well, I guess I should start with what I was like before the chunin exams... My mother died during child birth, cursing the entire village. My father hated me, though of me as a failed experiment and the whole village feared me because of my power including Temari and Kankuro. It seemed that the only one who understood me was my uncle Yashamaru, even when I accidently hurt others because of the shukaku's power. My father tired to have me assassinated several times, seeing me as a treat to Suna. One of these times he sent Yashamaru. I was only 6, I didn't realize it was him until I'd already badly hurt him. That was when he told me he didn't really love me; he wanted me dead because I'd killed his sister (my mother). After that I…. guess I went a bit insane. I carved this symbol into my head and became so cold hearted, living only my self and living only to harm others so I could feel alive"

Gaara slouched down towards the table a bit his expression drowning in remorse, "You say our pasts are similar… Well there is one huge difference between me and you. You never killed anyone." He turned away to avoid your gaze before whispering, "I have"

Well wasn't this date going great! The only real bit of conversation you'd had so far consisted of "are we really on a date?" and depressing talk of the gloomy past which had made him depressed and you… well, what did you think? Well at least that explained why the villagers were a bit frightened of him. But Gaara had always seemed too nice, too kind and caring to ever kill anyone without a reason. And the look on his face now made it obvious he was ashamed of what he'd done.

"Did you mean to kill them?" you asked, your voice a barley audible whisper

"Sometimes… Often after Yashamaru and before the Chunin exams"

"What happened at the chunin exams?"

"I met your brother, Uzumaki Naruto"

"And…?"

"He changed me."

"How?"

"He made me realise that killing was wrong. That love makes you stronger, not weaker. That I had a choice not to be a monster and that I wasn't completely alone if I wanted it so," Gaara had sat up a bit now but still didn't look you in the eye, "I want to set myself a new target, make myself a new person. I want to become better, stronger. I want to be loved by my village and I want to protect them-"

"So why not become the next Kazakage?" he finally looked up at you, shocked at what you'd said which made you fell nervous all of a sudden and blurted out your explaination "I mean, cause Naruto's gonna be the next Hokage and if you become the next Kazakage you'll be able to protect your village and they'd love you and then our villages can have a really strong alliance and I could visit you both a lot and stuff…" you slowed down and started mumbling a bit by the time you reached the end of your statement, feeling stupid and childish for suggesting it.

"hn…" Gaara cocked his head to one side thoughtfully. It made him look really adorable and innocent; your heart began attempting to burst out of your chest again.

_Darn it this isn't fair! I don't see him being all flustered up like this, grrrrr! I'll find a way of getting my revenge. _

You finished off your tea and dango as you began brainstorming ideas - both of which tasted very sweet and yummy. You'd have to remember to order these again when you next had the chance. Most of your ideas were a bit perverted and got you started feeling flustered again so you had to stop. You found yourself staring at Gaara- in particular his eyes. Such a pretty colour, were they green or blue? It was hard to tell as they were such a light minty shade and stood out brightly in contrast to the dark circles that surrounded them. It had the same affect to his hair too- in reality his hair was a bit of a reddish-brown, or brick red, but because of the darkness round his eyes and the pale tone of his skin it made it look bright and vibrant like your hair. How the hell did he stay that pale anyway? He lived in the desert for flips sake! Even you were catching a tan, which wasn't easy. For one thing you didn't go out all that often, but also because you skin took ages to react to the sunlight…

"I suppose we should really be getting on with the mission…" Gaara interrupted your trail of thought. Your heart sank at these words.

"Can't we carry on with the date?" You asked, "I know we shouldn't put off the mission- it's important we do our job, but we only just started and it's our first date together plus I'm tired of working hard for the moment."

You string of excuses just poured out- you didn't even have to think too hard to make them all up. Only the last statement was slightly false- you weren't physically tired at all, in fact it was more of boredom really. Gaara shuffled in his seat uncomfortable mulling things over.

"Okay…"

You interrupted him with a "Yesss!"

"We can have the day off today- we wouldn't be able to get much done anyway." He shuffled around in his seat some more as you beamed up at him.

"Finished?" Asked the waitress politely, collecting your dish and the cups.

"umm… I think so, yes" you answered looking at Gaara for confirmation. He nooded and you went to get your purse. Gaara stopped you.

"My treat, I said," he reminded you with a small smile before getting out some money to pay the bill.

.

**Ahhh, I'll call it quits here. Next time there'll be some more date-fluff I guess =3**

**Hope you enjoyed! Please R&R and all that stuff if you haven't already! Thank you all who have~!**

**Michy-chan xxx**


	17. Writers Block help!

**Hi, sorry but no new chapter : ( plz dunt hate me, just read on. -**

**I know its taking me forever but here's the thing; I've got a bit of "writers block" and I don't know what to do and where to go with the date. The longer it's taking me, the more special I feel I've got to make it to make it up for you guys coz of the long wait. So I've decided- send me your ideas about what you want to happen on the date (eg, go cinema/picnic/ ect). I really want to know what you want- I know most writers say "I'm writing this story for myself so I'm not gonna worry about what other people think about it" and don't get me wrong I AM writing it for my entertainment as well as yours. So this is a one time offer- send your ideas in (as reviews) and I'll take the best one(s) in & I'll work my magic with them =p**

**Sorry again for the wait!**

**Michy-chan**


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